VIDEO. Christian Louboutin honored at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco
Since Saturday 9 July, the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco has been unveiling the spectacular exhibition “Christian Louboutin: L’Exhibition[niste]”. More than 3000 square meters are dedicated to the passions, creations and inspirations of the master of women’s shoes.
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Under the emblematic red sole, a vast universe unfolds. Shimmering zany eclectic, and always demanding. The universe of a man who thinks, draws, shapes feminine souls for more than thirty years.
It all started at the age of 11, during yet another visit to the Palais de la Porte Dorée, in Paris, not far from the home of the parents of the young Christian Louboutin.
At the entrance to the museum, his gaze meets a sign, a stiletto heel shoe, crossed out with a red line.
“It was by looking at this sign that I understood that everything was taking shape. Everything around us first materializes through a drawing. It’s the beginning, everything starts from there.” explains Christian Louboutin.
Fascinated, the young boy draws, redraws, again and again this stiletto shoe until it becomes a reality.
In his maid’s room, he makes his very first model, which he calls “mackerel”.
Shoemaking occupies his days, design occupies his evenings. He draws his inspiration everywhere around him, in art, music, encounters, memories.
The oceanographic museum of Monaco, where he regularly went on vacation with his parents, Pop art, and all his hours spent in Parisian music halls.
“I worked on stage at the Folies bergères. Every evening, the dancers asked me to go and buy cutlets. I didn’t understand, so one day I asked them why they ate cutlets every night. They kindly laughed me, and explained to me that they placed them in their shoes to suffer less in heels. I then designed the shoes differently, taking comfort into account as well”.
Because for the designer, it is not a fashion accessory, but an extension of the body, the final point of the silhouette, which must marry the curve of the foot and the inclination of the ankle.
He has also designed a series of “nudes”, chairs for colored shoes, available in eight colors, designed to blend completely into the silhouette.
Christian Louboutin’s career is not academic. Little or no diploma in his pocket, he lets himself be guided by his instinct and his encounters.
His meeting with Caroline of Monaco, among others, whom he considers today as his “good fairy”.
Long before he knew notoriety, the princess perceived the talent of the young designer. She is one of his first clients, wears one of his models, noticed at an event, and launches his career.
1993, second turning point. The appearance of the famous red sole. “I received a model, and when I returned it, when I saw the sole, it was black, it was a lot of black, I wanted to erase a little. I wanted to add some color but I didn’t think specifically of red for the sole. I took a nail polish, I colored the sole, it turned red, and it was like a developer. I looked at my drawing I looked at the shoe, I said to myself ‘well there you go, that’s it’.”
This exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum is the second part of a first event organized at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, in Paris, in 2020. It is in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris, very close to this palace that the creator grew up, and it was in Monaco, and more generally on the Côte d’Azur that he sketched his first drawings.
A retrospective in two stages, to immerse yourself in the dreamlike world of this creator. “Christian Louboutin: The Exhibition[niste]continues until August 28at the Grimaldi Forum, in Monaco.