I have always been one of those people. Someone who becomes infatuated with something, but once it becomes main stream, I brush it off like an unwanted piece of dirt on a pair of new Christian Louboutin’s. I no longer praise the label, or even sometimes, I’ll stop wearing it. I become irritated with people, who in the beginning didn’t understand the feelings of admiration the fashion innovators felt, but once the masses and opinion leaders become adoring fans, they wear it with pride. Ahhhh. These people drives me nuts!
Putting my judgmental opinions aside, I am sure that I exhibit traits that other people find annoying, perhaps a characteristic trait from my youngest child syndrome. Yes, I have many, please ask my sisters. I am sure they will be more than happy to explain how I am more spoiled, I enjoy being taken care of, I am demanding…blah blah blah. However, besides my inferior sibling traits, I like exclusivity. I like originality. I like things that are unique; one of a kind.
Once a secret of the fashion elite and once my all time favourite cobbler, Christian Louboutin has now become a household name. All fashion trendsetters shudder....
Every star and reality star are now wearing Louboutins, from Sarah Jessica Parker to Kim Kardashian. AND ridiculously enough, apparently over five thousand women own over five hundred pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes. Talk about roaring sales and the opposite of exclusivity and originality!
I was a devoted fan, always admiring and praising his name like he was my God. However once I learned that the entire cast of The Hills owned a pair, I walked straight off the Christian Louboutin bus. I don’t want to be anything like those people with their fake jobs/boobs/face/ass/nose/chin, and their life of pity drama. I can’t stress this enough, they are not the best people to wear your brand, except Lo. Man, I loved her, so honest, and straight to the point. Best part of the series, hands down! Yes, I watched the show. Still doesn’t mean I commend their life style or think they are great role models. Just means, I have really really bad taste in TV.
Now, this gets me to my question of late. As a designer, does it matter who wears your label or is the only thing that matters is how many magazines the picture turns up in?
Designers and celebrities have become two peas in a pod in recent years. They cling together for life support, both living off the same inhaler. It’s a business strategy that both need, to be able to survive in their competitive businesses. It’s not a new method, considering its been happening since stars began gracing the hearts of a wider audience. In the 1910s and 1920s Salvatore Ferragamo was the shoe designer to the stars.
This bondage between celebrities and designers became heightened when Anna Wintour began placing celebrities on the cover of Vogue. Soon of course, all fashion magazines followed, and with that, our obsession with celebrities grew and so did the fashion industry’s greed to make money off them.
These days, it’s imperative for celebrities to dress the part. They are constantly followed by paparazzi who fuel the dreadful celebrity gossip industry. For designers, the importance lies within the circulation of the photo and how visible their product is. Some designers are just as happy if their design graces a cover of Vogue as they are if it appears in a page of US weekly. Barf.
Even though the fashion industry has tried to become more commercially accepted, by using celebrities as their main tool, have they started sacrificing their artistic integrity in return? With the constant need to have a celebrity wearing a designer’s product, does the designer lower their standards? Don’t even get me started on the pairing of Givenchy and Ciara.
These days, with every body’s different deities and ideologies, someone is bound to buy a product worn by a celebrity who has an unfavorable imagine within the media. For a devoted fan, it doesn’t matter what the media thinks.
So maybe at the end of it all, a celebrity for fashion, is a means to an end. Any celebrity under close-full watch of the public eye will do. The only respect the label will lose, is those that care about the industry instead of those who care solely about the meaning behind the label.
Anyways lets be honest, even though some owners of his shoes are not to my liking, you can’t deny his genius as a cobbler. Here are my pictures from Press Day for Christian Louboutin’s Spring 2011. For this season, he also collaborated with six other designers: The Blonds, Mary Katrantzou, Jonathan Saunders, Mark fast, David Delfin, and Richard Nicoll.
Christian Louboutin for Jonathan Saunders
Christian Louboutin for Mary Katrantzou
