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: yves saint laurent
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?
Versailles fashion Show
“Fashion is the history of a tissue.”
-Eleonor Lambert
The distance between continents was reduced. That night meant a change in culture. In fashion. People were looking for surprise, it was like playing a game. It was the turning point that changed everything. That night of 1973 fashion saved a palace in ruins, the Palace of Versailles.
Eleonor Lambert was the precursor of all this night. We could say that she was the true creator of fashion. In the 40s she was a publicist and started to make the lists that today we know as Top Tens of the best dresses. Without doubt, it was the Ana Wintour of the time. And also, a formidable organizer.
Everything arose with the ideal motive: the Palace of Versailles. An idea that originated in order to raise funds to be able to reform it. And why not, also with the reason to join two continents that despite their differences, had many more things in common than they thought: among them, the exquisite taste for fashion. To create beauty in any of its forms.
A runaway and a dinner. New York and Paris. Both involved in a context in which everything was allowed. The first homosexual movements, feminism. People of color are already on TV. Creativity was undoubtedly booming and people could not care less. Quite the opposite: it was what they were looking for. And the sexual and artistic freedom of the time pushed much to the creation of new designs that represented the free women.
Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Pierre Cardin and Emanuel Hungaro went on the night of November 28th to present their designs of Parisian Haute couture. The New York side was represented by designers Stephen Burrows, Anne Klein, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Halston.
At that time France was the pioneer of fashion par excellence. They rehearsed in the mornings while the Americans had to settle for the nights. The fashion event of the year had an anecdote. Halston, one of the North American designers, outdid others and knew it. He had a natural elegance but a great ego. Everyone was knocking at his door and he was a marketing genius. In the short time New Yorkers had to rehearse their runaways, time was running out and Halston saw that he was not going to be able to prepare his runaway. He picked up the door and went away angry, leaving the rest of the team to manage as he was because he was not going to participate in this. However, the next day it appeared as if nothing had happened.
Runaway begins. French were very chic and their sets were fantastic. It was a very French runaway, very elaborate but very complex. There was too much movement and it was very pretentious. Especially emphasized Josephine Baker, that paraded with great feathers in the head and made a spectacular interpretation.
The decorations were made of wood from the 17th century. There was everything and those present were amazed at what they saw: a rhinoceros pulling a cart. A pumpkin carriage (Dior), reindeer and many bright things. These were among other things that they could appreciate in the 2 hours and a half that lasted the parade. However, there were so many mixed ideas that the attendees were left with the feeling that it had been a bit ridiculous. Most do not remember the clothes that were exposed that night.
Nervous and excited the 42 North American models that paraded in Versailles, were set in motion. And the color exploded.
Stephen Burrows, the only designer still alive from that night, revolutionized the runway with his stunning African-American models. They radiated beauty everywhere. An innovative element, since most of the models that used to parade were of white complexion. If we join it to the burst of color of the clothes of Burrows, the parade left open mouth to more than one.
The entire North American show was wrapped in a Broadway musical. It gave energy with its designs, with its music. It was like a breath of fresh air that the French loved. For more information, it all culminated in the perfect and fabulous performance of Liza Minelli. It was only 37 minutes of show in which the Parisians felt absolute admiration for the runaway of the Americans. And the first to stand was Princess Grazia of Monaco.
At the end of the shows, those present gathered for dinner. But they could not begin, someone was missing. –Where is Eleonor Lambert? We can not start without it!-Someone said. And there she was, sending a press release in which he commented that the American runaway had been a success.
An experience that all those who were on that night of November 28, 1973 still remember and will not forget. Because the models began to have more opportunities; Because Paris realized that it needed to be renewed; Because New York took a giant leap; Because the African American triumphed; And last but not least:
Because they rescued Versailles.
Hedi Slimane: from his inception to his last tweets
“Nobody has achieved notoriety and relevance like Slimane with exclusively male designs”
– El País
Born in Paris in 1968, he studied art history at the Academy of Louvre. He is also a photographer and has always been linked to the world of music, enough to be the designer of groups like The Strokes or Babyshambles began working in the fashion world with brands like Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent (already in the year 1997), and so in 2000 Christian Dior opens its doors to become the creative director of Dior Homme.
Hedi Slimane managed to create a new aesthetic for man silhouettes by the use of skinny pants (trend already marked by Raf Simons, the new creative director of Calvin Klein) and some androgynous designs. They even say that Karl Lagerfeld lost 30 kilos to wear one of his designs. With his new creations, the designer revives for seven years a new trend in the predominantly black and white and the definition of the silhouette of men.
In 2007 the designer leaves Dior Homme to exploit his own designs out of the brand. Later, in 2012 he became creative director of Yves Saint Laurent, and with its entrance just renamed Saint Laurent. Its name changed to differentiate the brand in Haute Couture and ready-to-wear, and it was a way to relive the golden age of Saint Laurent in the 60s.
Recently, in April of this year, Slimane is replaced by Anthony Vacarrello. His departure is still very controversial after his last tweets posted on the social network because it is said that lash out against the Yves Saint Laurent brand and criticizing the absence of “Yves” during his leadership.
To this, the designer has defended several arguments, such as that during his legacy, bags still retained the “Y”, in the parade of 2015 threw confetti with the three initials of the famous logo and even create a line jewelry with more than 100 charms in which “YSL” was included.
And now is added the dispute that has the designer with the brand, a dispute which reaches 13 million dollars. The debt comes from the beginning of Slimane in the brand, in which the non-competition clause is not signed: this clause prevents you from working for a year with strong competition, and at the time seemed right to Hedi. Now the designer and photographer has sued them because he wants to sign the clause and remain during one more year Yves Saint Laurent receiving the same salary he would receive if he were really working for the firm.
The gossips say that is one of the candidates to replace Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. But we would have to wait one more year (or more). What would happend? Only time will tell us.
"The ugliest collection of Paris"A collection called Liberation from Yves Saint Laurent
From the peplum silhouette to the middle , everything has been done and has done it again a hundred times. And haute couture no longer emits more than homesickness and restraint. As if it were an old lady. I do not care if my clothes evoke the 40´s eyes of the cultivated public. The important thing is that all young girls who didn´t live the time, wanna wear this today.”
The true fashion icon: Anna Wintour
“You can make a film in Hollywood without the backing of Steven Spielberg and remove software in Silicon Valley without Bill Gates. But it is very clear that one can not succeed in the fashion industry without Anna Wintour ‘s blessing . “
Christian Dior: the genius of the needle
There are people who really born with a vocation. This was the case of the designer Christian Dior.