In Love with Louboutin

Fascinated by Indian marriages, French designer Christian Louboutin says he could make India-inspired collections for a 100 years without repeating himself

- SMITA TRIPATHI

PRINCESS CAROLINE OF MONACO was one of Christian Louboutin’s first customers when he opened his primary boutique on Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris’s posh Louvre District in 1991. Since then, fans of the Paris-born designer’s iconic red-soled shoes have included the late Tina Turner, Jennifer Lopez (J.Lo), Beyoncé, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Taylor Swift, and Leonardo DiCaprio as well after the maison launched his men’s footwear collection in 2010. The designer debuted his handbag collection in 2006, followed by a beauty line in 2014. Then in 2022, he launched the kids’ range, making sure that tiny feet are also adorned with the famous red-soled shoes. Today, there are 165 Christian Louboutin stores worldwide, including two in India.

“India as a country never disappoints,” he says, in a typically French-accented English drawl. “Other countries you get excited seeing a postcard, but when you reach [the country], it is not like that. India is the opposite; it is so much more than what you expect,” says Louboutin, who first visited India as a 15-year-old. His love affair with the country began with Bollywood and other Indian regional cinema that he grew up watching in the Barbados. “The first movie I saw was Satyajit Ray’s Devi with Sharmila Tagore,” he says.