The largest retrospective ever to be dedicated to Monsieur Louboutin's work, this must-see exhibition is now open to the public again following a hiatus due to the pandemic. The designer himself tells us what to expect...

As the world takes tentative steps towards normality, and cultural entities throw wide their doors once more,&nbsp;Christian Louboutin is rolling out the (safely distanced) red carpet&nbsp;for you and your red-soled shoes, inviting one and all to the newly-reopened&nbsp;L&rsquo;Exhibition[niste] &mdash;&nbsp;the biggest exhibition ever to showcase his work, and the first one to be held in his hometown of Paris.

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Despite the scale of the exhibition, with its 10 concept rooms and all their sensory treats, the display manages to remain personal and intimate &mdash;&nbsp;as if one were exploring the very mind of Monsieur Louboutin himself.

For one, the exhibition is being held in a venue that seems humble and unexpected, until one realises the significance it has had on Christian Louboutin&rsquo;s life and creativity. He was born nearby in the 12th arrondissement, and began visiting the Palais de la Porte Dor&eacute;e when he was as young as 8-years-old, he tells us. It all started from there. One fateful visit, he noticed a sign forbidding visitors to wear high heeled shoes. That very sign intrigued him enough to provide the inspiration for one of his most recognisable designs: the Pigalle pump.

Beyond the most notable of Christian Louboutin&rsquo;s shoes created during his over 30-year career (including some for Yves Saint Laurent and Roger Vivier, before he started his eponymous brand in 1991), Louboutin has dedicated half of the exhibition to &ldquo;things that I have loved more or less all my life,&rdquo; he says. Think Warhol&rsquo;s Flowers that led to the Pens&eacute;e shoe, vernacular pottery, a Bhutanese royal crown, and 18th century paintings by the late Pierre Molinier. &nbsp;

Read on for an interview with Christian Louboutin himself (held before the coronavirus outbreak), who tells us more about L&rsquo;Exhibition[niste], which took three years to conceptualise and create.

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You speak very fondly of Palais de la Porte Dor&eacute;e. Why is it such a special place for you?

This place is a very special place for me because I was born just nearby. So since my childhood, I have been visiting this place. At the beginning, when I was about 8- or 9-years-old, I was a bit scared on my way to the park, because the Palais looked so magnificent to me. My older sister pushed me to come in, and said I would see beautiful fishes. I came and I never stopped coming back.

&nbsp;

What do you remember of the museum? 

There was an aquarium downstairs, and slowly, I went upstairs. On the ground floor, there was a museum of African and Oceanic art, so there were collections of old French colonies. There were so many things to see: masks, jewellery, fabrics, and all sorts of objects. It was my way of travelling before I could actually travel out of the country.

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There are plenty of shoes on display, of course. Yet the exhibition has much more&hellip; 

It had to be legitimate for me, and it had to be more than about shoes. It&rsquo;s a vast exhibition. It speaks about my childhood, the museum. A lot of things come before the shoes. A joy comes to light. You will see the first drawing that I ever saw of a shoe. It was a sketch in the very building you enter. The sketch was of the profile of a shadow of a shoe. And as a kid, I was so surprised to see that. I was there in the &rsquo;70s, and the shoe depicted was one from the &rsquo;50s. I wondered why there was a drawing of a woman&rsquo;s shoe that didn&rsquo;t exist at the time. It was crossed in red and I wondered why it was forbidden. This is why it made sense for me to have an exhibition here. The exhibition shows what is inside my head, and I hope you like it.

&nbsp;

Almost 30 years in the business entails a lot of work. How did you decide what to include in the exhibition?

I wanted to show how it&rsquo;s not just about me, but it concerns many other people. I have many inferences and things that I love that start my designs. You will see many of the things I love.

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Christian Louboutin L&rsquo;Exhibition[niste] is now open to the public, and will run until January 3 2021. Online booking is mandatory at <a href="https://lexposition.christianlouboutin.com/en/">lexposition.christianlouboutin.com</a>.&nbsp;

Paint The Town Red: Christian Louboutin L'Exhibition[niste] Has Reopened In Paris

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