Christian Louboutin's Red Sole Diary

Christian Louboutin was born and raised in Paris, France and was first heard of in the French fashion scene in 1991 when he introduced his line of high-end women's shoes. His passion for fashion was cultivated by his three sisters. It was, however, an incident at a Paris museum in 1976 that started his interest with shoes. When he went to visit the Musee des Arts Africains et Oceaniens on Avenue Daumesnil, he noticed a pictograph sign prohibiting women wearing stilettos from entering the exhibit. The said exhibit was housed in a building with mosaic and parquet floors and the prohibition was meant to prevent damage on the flooring. He was intrigued by the sign that the image was etched in his mind which he later used on his designs.
In 1981, he put together a portfolio of his designs and went to Paris' top couture houses to show it off. It was the renowned shoe designer Charles Jourdan who gave him a job. While he was working for Jourdan, he met another famous shoe designer, Roger Vivier. Vivier's work is familiar to Louboutin because it is Vivier who designed the stiletto heel that fascinated Louboutin on a sign at the Avenue Daumesnil museum.
It was by accident that his signature red soles started. He felt that his designs looked dull as he saw them being strutted out the runway during one of his fashion shows. When he saw one of his employees wearing red nail polish, he applied it on the sole of a shoe thinking that it will have the effect he wanted. And it did! Since 1992, the shiny, red-lacquered soles were integrated into his.