I attended a conference with the man himself, before being given a guided sneak peek at the collection, which if I had to describe in two words, I borrow from an aesthetically similar Baz Luhrmann film and call it: Spectacular, spectacular.
Talking about the inspiration behind his many, many creations, the stylishly dressed Louboutin (he wears a camel colour, piped blazer) simply says, “Women. Women themselves and life. What I was saying is that when I’m designing, there is a designer, there is a man, and there is a friend of women.”
When asked if he has any special places “to find his muse” he adds, “When I’m designing summer shoes, I stay in my house in Egypt or travel to visit friends in Brazil. But when I’m designing for winter, I head to my cottage. If it’s cold then that’s great, but if not then I turn off the heating! I love working there, but I have difficulties working anywhere that I can see a garden. I love to garden.”
As an international jetsetter with not-so-humble abodes on virtually every continent, it therefore begs the question, why Toronto for the first North American Louboutin World exhibition? “It’s such an international city and the Bata Shoe Museum shows a love for shoes.”
Eloquent and articulate in the discussion, Louboutin shares an endearing anecdote about a woman who went to jail for stealing a pair of his coveted footwear: “When I heard about it, I wanted to send her a pair in jail! Nobody should go to those extremes, but it is flattering the passion that people show.”
I can relate with that very jailbird. Touring the exhibit, the shoes were mouthwateringly decadent, adorned with feathers, jewels and lace. Alas, they were all glued down (obviously), but if you’d like to look and not touch, the exhibit will be at Canada’s design museum, the Design Exchange from June 21 to September 15, 2013. You can find tickets on www.dx.org, but in the meantime fellow shoe lovers, await my next post where I’ll be publishing some teaser photos of the retrospective…
