Christian Louboutin is known for the same impossible stiletto heels as Jimmy Choo, but with an added attraction: a strip of carmine-red leather, sewn to cover the underside of each shoe. As a woman walks (or totters) off in those 5-inch heels, she leaves a flash-trail: an infinitude of sexual invitation. Or, as my uncles say, “It’s like a lady baboon’s red arse. Seeing red as she walks away means she’s sexually mature and ready.” (Indeed, some in the hip-hop mogul community call Louboutins “Red Bottoms”.)
And so far, that’s all I had to beware of when I strumpeted around in my only pair of Louboutins: that I was sending ‘lady baboon’ signals (also that I’d permanently damage my ankles, back, feet, and feminism). But for Louboutin’s Fall 2011 ‘Lookbook’, he teamed up with photographer Peter Lippman to re-envision a hodgepodge of Rennaisance-y/Restoration-y portraits that recreate paintings. Each ‘look’ showcases a specific portrait, but also the fall collection; there’s sumptuous costumery, heavy symbolism, heaving fruit, the hint of spilling bosoms, and well-placed products: sky-high heels.
There’s Georges de la Tour’s “Magdalene and the Flame”: instead of Magdalene’s intensity and longing, intensified by the presence of the flame, in this arrangement, the flame is reduced to a secondary player – it is the extraordinary boot that gets her smouldering stare. Francisco De Zurbaran’s demure “Saint Dorothy” gazes not heavenward, but at a platter topped with a purple shoe. Even James McNeil Whistler’s “Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother” (popularly known as “Whistler’s Mother”) is given the glamour of a feather-topped bootie.
But wait! Black people are represented in Louboutin’s spread, too!
