Christian Louboutin
| Christian Louboutin | |
|---|---|
Christian Louboutin in 2011 documentary for W (magazine).
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| Born |
7 January 1964 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Private, S.A. | |
| Industry | Consumer goods |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Founder | Christian Louboutin Henri Seydoux Bruno Chamberlain and Faheema Moosa |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
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Key people
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Christian Louboutin, co-founder Bruno Chamberland, co-founder and CEO Henri Seydoux, co-founder and director Alexis Mourot, COO and GM |
| Products | Shoes, purses, wallets, cosmetics, fragrance |
| Revenue |
 $250 million (31 December 2010) on 600,000 pairs of shoes a year |
|
Number of employees
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420 (2011) |
| Website | christianlouboutin.com |
Christian Louboutin (French: [kʁis.tjɑ̃ lu.bu.tɛ̃]; born 7 January 1964) is a French fashion designer whose high-end stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. Initially a freelance designer for fashion houses, he started his own shoe salon in Paris, with his shoes finding favor with celebrity clientele. His company has since branched out into men's footwear, handbags, fragrances and makeup.
Louboutin was born and raised in Paris's 12th arrondissement. He was the only son of Roger, a cabinet-maker , and Irene, a homemaker, both French, from Brittany. He has three sisters. Louboutin said in a 2012 interview that he was "much darker-skinned than everyone else in his family. You know, I felt I wasn't French. My family was very French and so I decided they had probably adopted me. But instead of feeling it was terrible and that I was an outsider who had to go and find my real family, I invented my own history, full of characters from Egypt because I was very into the pharaohs." He incidentally discovered, following a revelation by one of his sisters in 2014 that his biological father was in fact an Egyptian, with whom his mother Irene had been having a secret affair.
Louboutin was expelled from school three times and then decided to run away from home at the age of 12, at which point his mother allowed him to move out to live at a friend's house. He faced much opposition when he decided to drop out from school. However, he claims that what helped him make up his mind was an interview on TV with Sophia Loren, in which she introduced her sister, saying she had to leave school when she was only 12, but when she turned 50, she got her degree. He later remarked, "Everybody applauded! And I thought, 'Well, at least if I regret it I'm going to be like the sister of Sophia Loren!'"
Landscape architect Louis Benech has been his partner since 1997. Louboutin and his partner spend time between their homes in Paris's 1st arrondissement, a fisherman's cottage in Lisbon, a palace in Aleppo, a houseboat on the Nile christened Dahabibi-my love boat, and a house in Luxor. The Luxor domicile is a former craftsman's workshop, made of earthen bricks, to which he has added an additional floor and a rooftop belvedere. Additionally, he shares a 13th-century castle in the Vendée with his business partner Bruno Chamberlain.
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Wikipedia