asking christian louboutin

ODE: What inspired you the atmosphere of the showgirls?
CL: A place like the Follies Bergere is dedicated to women and working there was like diving into a giant harem. It's really a female world. In Paris, the majority of workplaces belonging to men, and cabarets like these are the exception. I was a teenager in this world, and so I did a lot of impact.

ODE: What was it that attracted you in the shoes of the dancers?
CL: I've always loved shoes, even in those old movies of the 50's. With shoes, the creative possibilities are relatively limited, but are very important in the case of the choir that usually only wear feathers and shoes. Nothing more.

ODE: How did you learn to manufacture?
CL: I started working with the showgirls and it was then that I learned many secrets of making a shoe, but my main tasks at that time did not go beyond acarrerar coffee, stick pens, sewing beads and things like that ... When I realized that the shoes were most interested me, I looked in the yellow pages numbers couture houses and knocked. It's that simple. A very nice woman agreed to see my za-ducks and recommended me to Charles Jourdan, which was where I really started my career. Then I worked with Maud Frizon, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent ...

ODE: How do you combine the romanticism of creating za-ducks science of manufacture?
CL: Of course, any designer shoes always want to design the highest heels you can. That is the romantic, glamorous. But after making hundreds of drawings, also became interested in its production and how to create a technically perfect shoe.

ODE: What was the most important thing you learned?
CL: The most important thing is knowing that the woman wears the clothes, but the shoe takes the woman. No matter how fragile it looks, must bear the full weight of the person and a very small area. The secret is in the balance, stability.

ODE: How do you choose names like "Love", "Trash" ...?
CL: My creative process is the natural and does not follow strategies or tactics. Often design a shoe and then choose a name, but sometimes I'm thinking about a specific topic that eventually turns into a shoe. My company is very structured, but not me.

ODE: Does commercial success or help curb that freedom?
CL: In my case, it helps. Not because I have 50 calls or answer e-mails that let you read what interests me, travel or meet my friends. Some people do not have time for nothing and, therefore, does nothing. A creative person should be able to manage time and keep your freedom. If you're not free, not happy. And if not happy, is reflected in his work, which is terrible when you work in the fashion world.

ODE: Do your friends come mainly from the world of fashion?
CL: No, no, no. In fact, I have very few friends in the fashion world. From twelve years I have gone out and traveled a lot, and I've always been surrounded by all kinds of people. I've never limited. I'm interested in artists, writers, filmmakers, and I also know many people in India, a country I've visited since I was 16 years and that fascinates me. I have also a house in Egypt, another country I love. I am also very interested in archeology, French cinema, where all talk, talk and talk ... I love many things, many different types of people.

ODE: Do you travel a lot?
CL: Yes, very. And always so, even before I started my company. I love traveling alone, but I like to go together, because it is a different experience. When you are traveling alone is more open to adventure and meeting new people. Besides the trips are always a source of major inspiration. I work constantly and there is a clear barrier between my personal and professional life. I love what I do, so I do not care, for example, work on a Sunday at home.

ODE: Now you are creating portfolios, where does your company going?
CL: As far as I am. No interests me more than make shoes and handbags, and maintain a small leather accessories group. I do not want a clothing line, as I have been offered, or form a huge company with my name. And anyway, I'm too lazy to do something more ...

ODE: How do your collaborations with theater, movie stars and designers such as Diane Von Furstenberg?
CL: The hardest part is working with the designers, because for them the shoes generally are not part of his vision. They are a secondary attachment, apart from deciding whether they will be tall or short, thin or square edge, never think of details. For me, however, the most important are the details.

ODE: But clothes and shoes go hand in hand ...
CL: Yes, but usually work in my own creative process, regardless of what they are doing fashion designers. Like everything else, this also depends on who is working. What are shoes will never heavy, square, little girls. It is not my style.

ODE: Do you feel the pressure to create the "It shoe each season?
CL: No, just doing my job. When I'm designing, I never fixed in the latest trend or what is happening in fashion. What matters to me is that each shoe is an important object.

ODE: Do you work alone or in teams?
CL: Always alone. Most of the time working in Egypt, especially in summer collections because it is easier to think of sandals when outside is 80 degrees of heat. For winter I lock myself in my house on the outskirts of Paris, and put the air conditioning too high to feel cold.