From a very young age, Christian Louboutin loved drawing. When his love for drawing is also added to his unconditional passion for shoes, emerge the impressive creations that thousands of women dream of every day. Do not just create fancy shoes. Create desire. These dazzling luxury heels with that unmistakable red sole (a color that by the way, is patented), have become an icon and a benchmark in the world of fashion.
The designer, ended up making shoes for the Parisian music-hall. After the success of his creations he launched to design the shoes to freelance mode, to order. And finally, in the early 90’s he created his first boutique, which was not lost on the designers who wanted to have him to design collections for their brands, such as Chloé, Diane von Furstenberg, Jean Paul Gaultier or Givenchy .
The shops of Louboutin manage to invoice the year no more and no less than 4.9 million euros, being the heel of 16 cm the most sold. A strong brand that is backed with its red sole. And so he defends it with all his might. This is how it was seen, in court with the famous luxury brand Yves Saint Laurent for making use of the red color in the sole of its shoes. Finally Christian Loubotin won the trial, and only a few brands (among them YSL) can use the red sole only in case the shoe is full red. Without any color contrast.
Even though their customers do not seek comfort, they claim that as soon as they are worn they are the most comfortable shoes in the world. The cheapest designs of Louboutin do not fall below 3000 euros, without the labor or different materials that can be used.
His passion for shoes and his creativity, make his creations are the most novel. The design of his impossible shoes was a success and were auctioned for fund raising for the English National Ballet, which was going through a bad economic time.
All special customers have a shoe last with their foot size and all models are made from that mold. For example, one of the most influential celebrities of the moment such as Angelina Jolie, had the designer to create the shoes that would lead during the presentations of the film Maleficent.
And it is not the only one. Hundreds of celebrities such as Kyle Minogue, Kim Kardashian, Melania Trump, Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton, Dita Von Teese, Jennifer Lopez, Sara Jessica Parker or Tamara Ecclestone are some of the lucky ones to wear the luxurious Louboutin, customized exclusively for them .
Tag: innovation
The black dress: the challenge of the future
Fascination. Elegance. Beauty. A legendary garment and the challenge of the fashion of the future: the black dress.
We have always linked the idea of black color to mourning. After the wars the widows dressed in black and did not choose another color as a symbol of respect for the deceased. However, it was a fashionable color when it ceased to be the symbol of duel.
Cocó Chanel was the revolutionary of the time. After learning sewing at the orphanage in which she grew up, she would never have imagined that she would have so much influence on the fashion world of today. On October 1, 1926, the first black dress was created and it differed from the rest. Its structure was simple, practical and easy to look. It was the dress of the emancipated woman.
Chanel’s idea was to free the woman. And she did, transferring masculine fashion (in particular the Dandee look) and the expressions of men to the feminine fashion. This created a kind of uniform for women, which gave confidence and allowed women to dress well reducing the risk of making mistakes.
Thanks to me poor girls can dress like the rich ones.
-Cocó Chanel
And Chanel did not believe in wealth. She believed in beauty and cared about what was elegant. And the black dress was (and still is).
However, Paul Poiret, one of the first fashion designers as we talked about in previous articles, was not very funny about the idea of the black dress. Simply, the Paris fashion dictator did not accept it. So much that when he met Chanel (who was wearing a black dress), Poiret asked: “For whom do you see in mourning?” – to which Chanel replied: for you, gentleman.
From the creation of the first black dress model, creativity flowed through the blood of designers. Why not join the black and white? It was a mixture of colors that went against all trends. And that was its essence. This imagination continues to flow as we have previously seen speaking of Iris Van Herpen, who, along with her first 3D fashion collection, also included the first black dress made in three dimensions.
They were not fashionable days. 1939 was a hard year for Chanel since she closed its meson. Along with the end of the war, the strongest was Christian Dior, who creates a new look in retro style and the black dress returns to resurface having an overwhelming success.
But what about the black dress in the film? The black dress has been an icon of the film in all its senses. That idea that is related to the protagonism of what they call Femme Fatale. Those intelligent and despised women who are not objects, but subjects. They are the dark women of Hollywood. The woman in that black dress had a deadly weapon. It meant she was a fantastic woman, a bad woman. And is that without any doubt, black is a defiant color when it has to be.
Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946). Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep (1946) or Marilyn Monroe in The Asphalt Jungle (1950), are some of the femme fatale of the time.
But certainly, in the 60´s was Audrey Hepburn that would bring the change of the concept of the black dress in Breakfast with Diamonds (1961). She chose that model because she had a different neckline in the back for the first scene of the film. She had the physical, the presence and the posture. She was almost a model. With it, the concept of the black dress changes. We are not talking about a Femme Fatale. Now the one that predominates is the romantic woman, like Audrey.
Great designers of luxury dresses have taken to their ground a different concept of the black dress. Due to the boom and the concept of the dress in the cinematographic field, many designers went to design their own version of the dress. In particular, in the year 1970, this beautiful dress of Yves Saint Laurent with lacy back full:
When Cocó Chanel died in 1971, her legacy relegated to the well-known Karl Lagerfeld. The German designer had with Cocó a love-hate relationship. Because she had found the signature look of Chanel and he was in charge of reviving it. But he did, and returned Chanel to the fashion elite.
And later, in 1994, how to forget that black Versace dress worn by Elizabeth Hurley at the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) in London, accompanying Hugh Grant:
Straight, tight, with sleeves, sleeveless, long, short, with lace, without it, with the back open, closed or even in 3D. Undoubtedly the black dress will always prevail in the fashion world and will continue to amaze us every season. What will be the next black dress that triumphs in the history of fashion?
Iris Van Herpen: Haute Couture in 3D
For me, fashion is an expression of art that is very intimately related to me and my body. I see it as an exciting way to express my identity.
-Iris Van Herpen for the British magazine Dazed & Confused.
The young designer of Haute Couture, Iris Van Herpen, has broken the patterns of fashion with her designs so novel and creative using the techniques of last generation. She has already been recognized by the Haute Couture Chambre Syndicale for that vision so different from other fashion designers.
She has undoubtedly revolutionized the world of Haute Couture. A world in which craftsmanship is predominant, the arrival of the designer made a big impact on the world of fashion with her works of art almost taken from science fiction.
After graduating from the Art Institute of Arhem (Holland, 2006) and having worked with such great designers as Alexander Mcqueen or Viktor & Rolf, 2007 marks a before and a after in the designer’s career because she creates her own firm. In 2010 she won the Rado of the Academy of Dutch Fashion to the best young designer and in 2011, after being praised by the famous Times Square magazine for a dress of her creation, singer Björk decides that she is the designer of the dress that will be on the cover of Biophilia:
There is a huge amount of things around us that we use and know, but which we are not aware of. For me, those are the most beautiful to explore, because I can make them visible with my imagination. Instead, I can not work with visible references since they do not allow me to fantasize.
-Iris Van Herpen
With the idea of things not visible to the human eye, Iris Van Herpen has already created several collections based on the sensory. Its concepts are clear and defined. Her designs tell stories. For its Radiation Invasion collection, she was based, for example, on the signals and radiation that make telecommunications visible. Or his collection Synesthesia, which is based on concepts such as “seeing” music or “taste” colors.
Radiation Invasion:
Synesthesia:
Creating handmade or with a sewing machine gives great possibilities, but also imposes many restrictions. Working directly in three dimensions, with direct printing in 3D, for me it is like a dream because the idea goes from my head directly to the clothes without first passing the drawing on the paper.
-Iris Van Herpen
With its incredible innovation and especially with the use of materials as complex as the plexiglass, it is not surprising that magazines such as Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar have dedicated to her more than one article.