The art of the shoe: Louboutin on exhibit

Christian Louboutin insists that wearing his six-inch stilettos is a 'form of liberty'

Last updated: February 25, 2020 | 10:57

Compiled by Christian Borbon, Digital Content Producer and Reuters

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'No shoe with a 12cm (5 inch) heel is comfortable... but people do not come to me looking for a pair of slippers,' said Louboutin, who helped bring high heels back into fashion in the 1990s and 2000s.

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Super-high heels can free women, says legendary French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, who insists that wearing his towering six-inch stilettos is a 'form of liberty'.

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Louboutin - best known for producing shoes with soles painted lipstick-red - used to go to the Palais de la Porte Doree to look at exhibitions when he was a boy. He remembers a sign with a picture of a spike-heeled shoe with a red line through it, banning women from wearing stilettos to protect the wooden floors.

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'To be a woman is also about enjoying one's freedom to be feminine if you want. Why renounce (high heels) when you can have them and flats,' he said.

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Creations by French shoe designer Christian Louboutin are displayed during a press preview of his exhibition in Paris.

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Creations by French shoe designer Christian Louboutin are displayed during a press preview of his exhibition in Paris.

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Creations by French shoe designer Christian Louboutin are displayed during a press preview of his exhibition in Paris.

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