Christian Louboutin is a French-Egyptian fashion designer who was born in Paris, one of the most fashion-conscious cities in the world. He once visited a museum, during which he was shocked to see a sign forbidding women from wearing heels to keep the floors mark-free. This initiated his interest in women's shoes, and gave him the idea of the "forbidden shoe", which inspired him to create the heels that everyone can’t help but want.
We all love some good heels but the specialty of Christian Louboutin's heels are specifically the bright red soles.
(Photo via Britannica.com)
It's quite unconventional to have such a fierce colour as a sole added to every pair of heels designed but these red soles are a global symbol of luxury now. Let’s see how the idea of these unique soles came to Christian Louboutin in the first place.
Back in 1993, after about 2 years of him being in the business, he decided to make a shoe inspired by Andy Warhol's, 'Flowers'. Once the prototype had arrived from Italy and sat in his hands, however, Louboutin realized he wasn’t satisfied with the product and felt that they were missing something essential. The heels themselves were a pair of pink heels stacked together, with cartoonist cloth blossoms sitting in the corner of the room. Fortunately, one of his assistants had been applying red nail polish at that moment, giving Louboutin the idea to include it in his shoe design. He took the bottle of red nail polish, painted the black soles, and changed them into red, leading to the creation of his famous red soles. According to him, the color red symbolizes love, passion, and blood, all of which represents women empowerment and their inner confidence to break off the constraints of society by wearing the 'forbidden shoe’.
(photo via medium.com)
These red soles have made appearances on the big screen starting from one of Cardi B's most famous releases, Bodak Yellow, to Rihanna's Pope look for the Met Gala in 2018, and so much more. With the net worth of Louboutins being $1.6 billion, a new pair of Louboutins can cost you anywhere from $700-$2000. Sometimes it goes up even higher. Celebrities like Marian Rivera, Toni Gonzaga, and Heart Evangelista loved these heels enough to wear a pair of these for their wedding day! It's unbelievable to see how celebrities have taken to these pairs of shoes and their red soles, causing them to become even more sought after.
(Photo via footwearnews.com)
Despite how desperately they are searched for, if you are planning on buying them, you should know that these “forbidden shoes” are extremely high maintenance. The red soles could wear off after a couple of wears, which might require you to send them to a particular shoe repair service for maintenance. It would be wise to prepare for sending the shoes off to the shoe repair service after only 3-4 wears. You can also resell them for a good amount. Women buy used shoes with worn out red soles to see the originality of the product and therefore, pay a good amount for these pairs of shoes.
It is important to remember that Louboutins aren’t a necessity you need in your life, despite what the media wants you to believe!
Authored: By: Jayee Bora
Edited By: Yana Kumar
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