PARIS issue
aRUDE comment
ONLINE content
ARBITERS
Sexually Speaking Catherine M. interview by Iké Udé
State of Grace Stephen Greco Examines the Divine Jewels of JAR Paris
Choirmaster Chistophe Barratier interview by Brandon Judell
Make it Dada Delano Greenidge focuses on Marc Dachy's Points of Light
The Intoxicating Fumes of '70s Paris Madame de Baron Rigmor Trolle by Johan Falkman
BEAUTY
Beauty Illustrated photography by Wolfgang Ludes
A Girl's Best Friend photography by Kimio Takeyama
BON APPETIT
Questions for Eric Ripert
Questions for Christian Delouvrier
FASHION
Christian Louboutin's Moulin Rouge interview by Patrick McDonald
Enfant Terrible Foujita Photography by Makiko Takehara
The Only One Shoes of Olga Berluti interview by Iké Udé
Kiki of Montparnasse photography by Iké Udé
Chez Josephine Baker photography by Wolfgang Ludes
KULTURE & ART ART
Hardcore aRude interviews Orlan
I Love it Here 14 Questions for Henri Loyrette interview by Barbara Polla
KULTURE & ART CINEMA
Oh Yes Nicole Kidman interview by Brandon Judell
Frankly Yours Arnaud Desplechin interview by Brandon Judell
Like It Is Susan Sarandon interview by Brandon
Cover Her Face Laetitia Masson interview by Anh Duong
Look at Me Agnes Jaoui interview by Brandon Judell
LEGEND
As Young As You Feel Catherine Demeuve interview by Brandon Judell
Mothers and Sons aRUDE interviews Jean Claude Baker on his Mama Josephine
The Temptations of St. Jean Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino Unearth Jean Lorrain
Black Prince of Elegance Charles Baudelariean an excerpt by Valerie Steele
OFF THE WALL GREEN IS OUR COLOR
Selima Salaun
Jean Chatelus
REVIEW
aRUDE Comment by Iké Udé
Telescope A close-up of the stars, notables, scenesters and picturesque dilettantes
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Flora Painting by Henri Matisse
Winner Takes All Alex Ulam gets Vertical with Christian de Portzamparc
Dusted & Finessed Jean-Christophe Poggioli's Design for Living interview by Alex Ulam
Towel with Attitude D. Porthault's Secret Treasures by Alex Ulam
STYLE
Pardon Our Apparance photography by Iké Udé
Element of Style aRUDE's template for style
Style File erotic jewelry designer Betony Vernon
Style File costume corset designer Mr. Pearl
Fantasy & Simulacrum photography by Iké Udé
aRUDE comment
paris_issue_clouboutin.php
ONLINE content
ARBITERS
Sexually Speaking Catherine M. interview by Iké Udé
State of Grace Stephen Greco Examines the Divine Jewels of JAR Paris
Choirmaster Chistophe Barratier interview by Brandon Judell
Make it Dada Delano Greenidge focuses on Marc Dachy's Points of Light
The Intoxicating Fumes of '70s Paris Madame de Baron Rigmor Trolle by Johan Falkman
BEAUTY
Beauty Illustrated photography by Wolfgang Ludes
A Girl's Best Friend photography by Kimio Takeyama
BON APPETIT
Questions for Eric Ripert
Questions for Christian Delouvrier
FASHION
Christian Louboutin's Moulin Rouge interview by Patrick McDonald
Enfant Terrible Foujita Photography by Makiko Takehara
The Only One Shoes of Olga Berluti interview by Iké Udé
Kiki of Montparnasse photography by Iké Udé
Chez Josephine Baker photography by Wolfgang Ludes
KULTURE & ART ART
Hardcore aRude interviews Orlan
I Love it Here 14 Questions for Henri Loyrette interview by Barbara Polla
KULTURE & ART CINEMA
Oh Yes Nicole Kidman interview by Brandon Judell
Frankly Yours Arnaud Desplechin interview by Brandon Judell
Like It Is Susan Sarandon interview by Brandon
Cover Her Face Laetitia Masson interview by Anh Duong
Look at Me Agnes Jaoui interview by Brandon Judell
LEGEND
As Young As You Feel Catherine Demeuve interview by Brandon Judell
Mothers and Sons aRUDE interviews Jean Claude Baker on his Mama Josephine
The Temptations of St. Jean Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino Unearth Jean Lorrain
Black Prince of Elegance Charles Baudelariean an excerpt by Valerie Steele
OFF THE WALL GREEN IS OUR COLOR
Selima Salaun
Jean Chatelus
REVIEW
aRUDE Comment by Iké Udé
Telescope A close-up of the stars, notables, scenesters and picturesque dilettantes
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Flora Painting by Henri Matisse
Winner Takes All Alex Ulam gets Vertical with Christian de Portzamparc
Dusted & Finessed Jean-Christophe Poggioli's Design for Living interview by Alex Ulam
Towel with Attitude D. Porthault's Secret Treasures by Alex Ulam
STYLE
Pardon Our Apparance photography by Iké Udé
Element of Style aRUDE's template for style
Style File erotic jewelry designer Betony Vernon
Style File costume corset designer Mr. Pearl
Fantasy & Simulacrum photography by Iké Udé
CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN moulin rouge
Patrick McDonald
Christian Louboutin photography Iké Udé click image to enlarge Patrick McDonald: What was life like before you entered the fray of fashion design?
Christian Louboutin: It was far more fashionable! More relaxed, but less interesting.
PM: How did you come to your signature red soles?
CL: Actually, it was an accident. At the very beginning, I was designing a pair of shoes called "Pansy," after Andy Warhol's flower paintings. I had not noticed until the shoe was made that the sole was this huge mass of black, which was not on my drawing. By chance my assistant, who was very beautiful and did nothing but polish her nails, was using a red nail varnish, which I took from her and painted the soles. Ten years ago, women in Paris were dressing very much in black. I started thinking, red is a strong color, and at the same time a non-color. They still had the red lips and red nails, even if they didn't wear color.
PM: An accent to their black. So that became your signature?
CL: Actually, I didn't think to continue with it. But I had so many woman say, "Oh I got picked up on the street because a man said 'You have red soles,'" so it was like a modern Follow me, young man. In the early 1900s, women in Paris would walk on the streets and if they were crossing paths with a man they were interested in they would drop a handkerchief. This was called the "Follow me, young man." He could give it back to the women and they would start a conversation. It looked natural, not vulgar.
PM: You share a passion for red with the late Diana Vreeland.
CL: She absolutely is one of the few people I would love to meet, that I shall never meet—among them Marlene Dietrich and Marie Antoinette. She represented an ideal woman without the idea that you have to be very young and beautiful.
PM: To what extent are shoes a fetish of yours and your clients?
CL: I'm not a fetishist at all, but the shoes are definitely a focus for fetishists. It's an obvious object of fetishism because it transforms a woman in a second. It's actually very technical; it changes a woman because of the movement of the heels: you actually have to reshape your body, breast, back and ass. It changes how a woman carries herself.
CL: A woman carries her clothes but it's the shoes that carry her. So that's why the attitude is different. Shoes carry the language of the bodyconscious. I always like that fact. It obliges you to have attitude.
PM: Who are your favorite shoe designers, past or present?
CL: I always liked Roger Vivier; to me he is the greatest master of all. He had this thing I really don't have: he wanted to be a sculptor. His designs were of animals; you could virtually see shapes of animal faces—cats, beaks of a crow. That's the thing that I love. I see the sculptor. I would never have done shoes if I had not known of his work, almost.
PM: Do you design for yourself? Or do you have a particular woman in mind?
CL: I think about a specific person, but I never have the same person in mind. It could be someone I saw on the street, a dancer. My biggest inspiration is showgirls. The first thing I really wanted to do was work for showgirls when I decided to do shoes as a job. I'm thinking of the naked body. With a shoe, a woman can still be naked. That's the thing that I really liked about shoes. A nude with shoes is still a nude. A nude with a hat is a nude with a hat. But a nude with shoes is a nude. Precisely. Look at the portraits, from Helmut Newton to Olympia. It's two types of nudes. Helmut's been photographing nudes with shoes and still with shoes you think of it as natural. Funny enough, I had been very happy when I started working with different showgirls. Somebody like Tina Turner, I am very proud and happy when I see them performing in my shoes.
PM: Even as a child, I remember very well Janis Joplin singing in a pair of mules. She actually had terrible dresses but very beautiful mules.
CL: So the well-dressed woman only needs shoes to be well-dressed. What is worse than a woman very well-dressed, with bad shoes?
PM: What are the most expensive and inexpensive materials you have used in your designs?
CL: The most inexpensive is the trash I found in my trash bin, from half a stamp to cigarette butts. The cheapest material is using everything that is thrown out. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Absolutely. I did three pairs of shoes for the same person that where all in rubies. She was totally chic, so I paved all the soles in rubies, and straps around the ankles. But she could not walk in them. It was for the beauty of it and some for the bed.
PM: Can shoes be a barometer of social status?
CL: I guess Sex and the City has installed the idea that Manolo Blahniks is for the type of woman from the upper East side. In France in the '60s and '70s, the color and the quality of the shoe was a social barometer. It comes not from the design but from who picked them first and what they become a symbol of. It really depends on who is picking them up first.
PM: If you did a men's collection, what would it be like?
CL: I wouldn't do it. I would have no fun doing it, no inspiration. I actually remember doing an interview in France with a man. I was talking about Marlene Dietrich, saying that when she is crossing her legs and showing her shoes, that's totally a sexual attitude, and so he thought it could be the same thing with men. I said, "I don't think so." Then he showed me his foot and his shoe and said, 'What about that?' I thought, This is definitely not a sexual thing. It does not work for me.
PM: Where do you find your inspiration?
CL: I would say my biggest inspiration comes from my freedom. I like people; I like to travel; I like to go everywhere. Nothing disgusts me; I have no fear. The more I travel, the more I feel free and open to creativity.
PM: Who is your ideal client?
CL: One who is going to buy a hundred pairs of shoes and not complain and take them in five minutes. Apart from that, Princes Caroline of Monaco. I did a shoe called "Tango," and she looked at the shoe in black velvet and started clapping like a flamenco dancer. Then she tried it on. She began doing more tango beats than flamenco. The ideal customer understands what references you have for a specific shoe. The ideal client is one who collapses when she sees the shoe.
PM: How high can a heel go?
CL: It depends on the woman. I'd rather see a woman with no heel if she can't walk or has to complain because she has high heels on. I had a woman say to me, "I cannot run in those." I asked her, "How often do you run? When was the last time you went running in your life?" I was really upset. I said, "Look outside.
PM: Do you see anyone running? Why do you feel that in your life one has to run?
CL: Nobody has to run. The high heel obliges a woman to actually walk in the street to a better speed—meaning, non-speed, so she can actually look at the architecture. Everyone should at least try to wear high heels. It makes life more enjoyable.
Patrick McDonald
Christian Louboutin photography Iké Udé click image to enlarge Patrick McDonald: What was life like before you entered the fray of fashion design?
Christian Louboutin: It was far more fashionable! More relaxed, but less interesting.
PM: How did you come to your signature red soles?
CL: Actually, it was an accident. At the very beginning, I was designing a pair of shoes called "Pansy," after Andy Warhol's flower paintings. I had not noticed until the shoe was made that the sole was this huge mass of black, which was not on my drawing. By chance my assistant, who was very beautiful and did nothing but polish her nails, was using a red nail varnish, which I took from her and painted the soles. Ten years ago, women in Paris were dressing very much in black. I started thinking, red is a strong color, and at the same time a non-color. They still had the red lips and red nails, even if they didn't wear color.
PM: An accent to their black. So that became your signature?
CL: Actually, I didn't think to continue with it. But I had so many woman say, "Oh I got picked up on the street because a man said 'You have red soles,'" so it was like a modern Follow me, young man. In the early 1900s, women in Paris would walk on the streets and if they were crossing paths with a man they were interested in they would drop a handkerchief. This was called the "Follow me, young man." He could give it back to the women and they would start a conversation. It looked natural, not vulgar.
PM: You share a passion for red with the late Diana Vreeland.
CL: She absolutely is one of the few people I would love to meet, that I shall never meet—among them Marlene Dietrich and Marie Antoinette. She represented an ideal woman without the idea that you have to be very young and beautiful.
PM: To what extent are shoes a fetish of yours and your clients?
CL: I'm not a fetishist at all, but the shoes are definitely a focus for fetishists. It's an obvious object of fetishism because it transforms a woman in a second. It's actually very technical; it changes a woman because of the movement of the heels: you actually have to reshape your body, breast, back and ass. It changes how a woman carries herself.
The high heel obliges a woman to walk in the street so she can actually
look at the architecture. Everyone should at least try to wear high heels.
It makes life more enjoyable..
PM: You say shoes, not clothes, carry the woman.
CL: A woman carries her clothes but it's the shoes that carry her. So that's why the attitude is different. Shoes carry the language of the bodyconscious. I always like that fact. It obliges you to have attitude.
PM: Who are your favorite shoe designers, past or present?
CL: I always liked Roger Vivier; to me he is the greatest master of all. He had this thing I really don't have: he wanted to be a sculptor. His designs were of animals; you could virtually see shapes of animal faces—cats, beaks of a crow. That's the thing that I love. I see the sculptor. I would never have done shoes if I had not known of his work, almost.
PM: Do you design for yourself? Or do you have a particular woman in mind?
CL: I think about a specific person, but I never have the same person in mind. It could be someone I saw on the street, a dancer. My biggest inspiration is showgirls. The first thing I really wanted to do was work for showgirls when I decided to do shoes as a job. I'm thinking of the naked body. With a shoe, a woman can still be naked. That's the thing that I really liked about shoes. A nude with shoes is still a nude. A nude with a hat is a nude with a hat. But a nude with shoes is a nude. Precisely. Look at the portraits, from Helmut Newton to Olympia. It's two types of nudes. Helmut's been photographing nudes with shoes and still with shoes you think of it as natural. Funny enough, I had been very happy when I started working with different showgirls. Somebody like Tina Turner, I am very proud and happy when I see them performing in my shoes.
PM: Even as a child, I remember very well Janis Joplin singing in a pair of mules. She actually had terrible dresses but very beautiful mules.
CL: So the well-dressed woman only needs shoes to be well-dressed. What is worse than a woman very well-dressed, with bad shoes?
PM: What are the most expensive and inexpensive materials you have used in your designs?
CL: The most inexpensive is the trash I found in my trash bin, from half a stamp to cigarette butts. The cheapest material is using everything that is thrown out. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Absolutely. I did three pairs of shoes for the same person that where all in rubies. She was totally chic, so I paved all the soles in rubies, and straps around the ankles. But she could not walk in them. It was for the beauty of it and some for the bed.
PM: Can shoes be a barometer of social status?
CL: I guess Sex and the City has installed the idea that Manolo Blahniks is for the type of woman from the upper East side. In France in the '60s and '70s, the color and the quality of the shoe was a social barometer. It comes not from the design but from who picked them first and what they become a symbol of. It really depends on who is picking them up first.
PM: If you did a men's collection, what would it be like?
CL: I wouldn't do it. I would have no fun doing it, no inspiration. I actually remember doing an interview in France with a man. I was talking about Marlene Dietrich, saying that when she is crossing her legs and showing her shoes, that's totally a sexual attitude, and so he thought it could be the same thing with men. I said, "I don't think so." Then he showed me his foot and his shoe and said, 'What about that?' I thought, This is definitely not a sexual thing. It does not work for me.
PM: Where do you find your inspiration?
CL: I would say my biggest inspiration comes from my freedom. I like people; I like to travel; I like to go everywhere. Nothing disgusts me; I have no fear. The more I travel, the more I feel free and open to creativity.
PM: Who is your ideal client?
CL: One who is going to buy a hundred pairs of shoes and not complain and take them in five minutes. Apart from that, Princes Caroline of Monaco. I did a shoe called "Tango," and she looked at the shoe in black velvet and started clapping like a flamenco dancer. Then she tried it on. She began doing more tango beats than flamenco. The ideal customer understands what references you have for a specific shoe. The ideal client is one who collapses when she sees the shoe.
PM: How high can a heel go?
CL: It depends on the woman. I'd rather see a woman with no heel if she can't walk or has to complain because she has high heels on. I had a woman say to me, "I cannot run in those." I asked her, "How often do you run? When was the last time you went running in your life?" I was really upset. I said, "Look outside.
PM: Do you see anyone running? Why do you feel that in your life one has to run?
CL: Nobody has to run. The high heel obliges a woman to actually walk in the street to a better speed—meaning, non-speed, so she can actually look at the architecture. Everyone should at least try to wear high heels. It makes life more enjoyable.
