The Red Sole Standard

Happy birthday, Mr. Louboutin. The shoe designer celebrates his 20th career anniversary with the release today of Christian Louboutin, a commemorative monograph tracing the rise of his brand.

The book puts forth a biography of the designer before mapping 20 years’ worth of his shoe creations. Further chapters invite closer looks at Louboutin’s fanciful store interiors, his homes in Paris and Cairo and his work with film director David Lynch.

Along the way, the book introduces readers to some of the designer’s key clients, such as Dita Von Teese, Kristin Scott Thomas and model Farida Khelfa.

Von Teese has collaborated with Louboutin on footwear for her burlesque shows for nearly eight years. In Les 20 Ans, a video produced to accompany the book, she says she considers Louboutin heels an integral component of her routines.

‘It’s a really sexy thing, especially when performing a striptease onstage, to have that flash of red sole,’ she says. ‘I always try to push the limits, and so does he.’

The burlesque star is far from the only performer to view Louboutin’s shoes as the benchmark of saucy allure.

‘Amongst other burlesque performers, it’s become sort of the standard—although a lot of people are just painting the bottom of their shoes red, because maybe they can’t afford to have Louboutins,’ she says. ‘That flash of red sole in striptease is becoming expected.’

Christian Louboutin