French-Egyptian footwear designer Christian Louboutin has opened his first boutique on Auckland’s Queen Street, continuing the strong surge of luxury brands to open stand-alone stores in New Zealand over the past four years.
The iconic luxury leather goods brand joins other global fashion and jewellery heavyweights such as Saint Laurent, Burberry, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bvlgari, Moncler, Balenciaga and Michael Kors in opening stores in Aotearoa since 2020.
Known for its iconic red-soled shoes, Christian Louboutin this year celebrates 30 years in business, a relatively short lifetime for a brand to have cultivated such a global cult following. In that time Christian Louboutin’s ‘red bottoms’ have become one of fashion’s most recognisable and valuable social cues.
Based in Paris, France, Christian Louboutin first produced a prototype of a silk-satin shoe named the ‘Pensėe’, but when it arrived from the Italian factory, the shoe lacked what the designer referred to as ‘optical energy’. He describes a flash of inspiration that came from watching his assistant paint her nails in vivid red, and from there the iconic red bottoms were born.
“Back at the time, in the ‘90s, women didn’t really wear colours, they dressed up mostly in black and white and not in purple, green or yellow” says Louboutin. “But at the same time they had some touch of red on the lips or on the nails. So I thought, red can’t be considered as a colour, it is different.”
The red sole embodies freedom and independence, today so synonymous with the designer’s spirit.
In keeping with the Maison’s spirit of freedom and independence, Christian Louboutin has designed every shoe that Taylor Swift has worn on her recent Eras Tour that started in Arizona, North America in 2023. The singer had several different shoes designed for each portion of the concert series, including shiny Cate Boots for the Fearless Era, CL Moc Lug moccasins for the Red Era, crystal ankle boots for her 1989 Era and, to close the show, the Gael High boot as a nod to Swift’s masterpiece ‘Midnight’.
On Thursday 15th February, the brand held an evening soiree for 50 guests in the Auckland boutique to celebrate its arrival. DJ Jaimie Webster-Haines played her signature mix of disco, funk and house to a packed crowd including designer Karen Walker, gallerist Michael Lett, chef Hercules Noble, entrepreneurs Iyia Liu, Edna Swart and Sera Crickshank, and fashion influencers Rosalie Burns, Aki Curtis, Marco Stander, Tobi Innes, Sakura Matches and Tamara Markovic.
Christian Louboutin Auckland is now open in the iconic Queen’s Arcade, 34-40 Queen Street, Auckland CBD.
Photos by Andre Kong @snapperonline
