Why Christian Louboutin and Sabyasachi team-up is more spikes than saris
Launching in Hong Kong this week, Christian Louboutin’s ultra-limited new shoe collection might use original fabrics from Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s archives, but it still has all his signatures – including the spikes
Christian Louboutin is getting an Indian formal outfit tailored at his Paris flat near the Place Vendome when I walk in for our interview. It is a fitting setting, given we are going to talk about his trip to Hong Kong this week to launch a colourful collaboration with Indian fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee and his label Sabyasachi.
“We first met three and a half years ago by accident when I went to his store in Mumbai,” says the famed French shoe designer. “I knew and loved his work before and I passed by his store and went in to buy some kurta [Indian-style knee-length shirts].”
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By sheer luck, Mukherjee happened to be there, even though he is based in his home city of Calcutta. When the pair started to talk, a creative chemistry sparked and they kept in touch. Louboutin even visited Calcutta, where he was charmed by the city’s “romance and remembrance, those almost-creepy old palaces”.
He explains that when he first started talking to Mukherjee it was not about fashion but food, cinema and how Calcutta and Paris have so many things in common. “He then asked me to design shoes for his shows to fit his clothes. This is how it started.”
The new collaboration sees bright tapestry-like fabrics and embroidery-style embellishments adorn strappy knee-high boots, sexy sandals, mules, trainers and lush slip-ons. But despite the bright mix of Indian fabrics all taken from Sabyasachi’s archives, it is more about Christian Louboutin: the shapes, the heels, and yes those signature spikes.
“I’m thinking more in-depth here – it’s inspired by [Mukherjee’s] clothes, but not necessarily meant to be worn with them,” Louboutin says. “Some [of the shoes] are very Indian and Sabyasachi, but then they will have the spikes at the back – it’s something very me. I like to always mix things up.”