Heel King To The King

- Bambina Olivares

The idea of a high heel now is completely different,” declares luxury French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, he of the signature red sole, who has designed his share of stratospheric heels. “Before, the high heel was eight centimetres and a half. The first season [I started designing], I did a shoe which was eight-and-a-half centimetres—around three inches and a half—and people were saying, it’s nice but it’s much too high.”

He’s gone higher. But, he explains, “what matters is not actually the height of the heel but the arch. If you’re on a five-inch arch, it’s probably more complicated for some people than being on a seven-inch arch with a three-inch platform.”

He’s even done nine inches—with a platform. He concedes that without the platform, a shoe that high would be difficult to walk in. He is amused by tales of women, in a twist on the Cinderella tale, anaesthetising their feet to be able to walk, if not a mile, then certainly a few metres, in vertiginous heels. There is a well-known local actress—an avowed Louboutin fan— said to apply Emla (a topical anaesthetic) to her feet just so she can dance all night in stilettos. There are also stories of women who go to the extent of having Botox injections on their feet in order to walk in high heels; though this does not apply specifically to his own red-soled creations. Louboutin cautions against this, saying it could even lead to serious injury, because you can do greater damage to your feet if you don’t feel anything!