Christian Louboutin brings soles and soul to Palais de la Porte Dorée
“In the beginning, there’s often a drawing. And it all started with this drawing…” Christian Louboutin recalls that this drawing is of a heel with a big red line through it. A warning against wearing high heels that 10-year-old Christian discovered at the Museum of Oceanian and African Arts. In stark opposition to this ban, he spent his life adding inches to women all over the world with audacious styles of shoes, stemming from his love for art and fashion. The rest is history: for over thirty years, the red heel has been one of the most emblematic fashion items of all time. The world of Christian Louboutin is a creative, flamboyant and modern one, from his shoes to the treasures of his personal collection to the artist friends who inspire and support him. It is this rich universe that the exhibition “Christian Louboutin L’Exhibition[niste],” launched on February 24th at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, proposes to (re)discover. A symbolic place for this child from the 12th arrondissement, who throughout his teenage years, spent hours admiring its ornamental richness. The exhibition invites the visitor into Christian Louboutin’s creative process (and presents several models never exhibited before). Under the artistic direction of Olivier Gabet, director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, it features works by Louboutin’s friends including Imran Qureshi, David Lynch, Tarek Shamma and Blanca Li. All of them were by his side to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, the first major event of Paris fashion week which began the same day. The high-profile guest list included Dita Von Teese, Charlotte Rampling, Monica Bellucci, Karlie Kloss, Janelle Monae, Anna Mouglalis, all wearing their most beautiful red heels…
