Diana inspired him, he is a trapeze artist… turns out Christian Louboutin is no ordinary designer

And he had a secret movie role

christian louboutin

And he had a secret movie role

It's safe to say Christian Louboutin is no ordinary designer - just look at these unicorn boots or the fact Carrie Bradshaw had to pay for her Louboutins if you don't believe me. But even I wasn't prepared for these weird and wonderful facts I learned from the Christian Louboutin Rizzoli Book...

He left school early

Christian was thrown out of school aged 15 , but he never had regrets after seeing Sophia Loren in a documentary where she spoke of going back to school later in life, he thought he could do the same should he need to.

louboutin

Photo: Gyome Dos Santos

He was a landscape gardener

Before becoming a shoe designer, Christian forged a career as a landscape gardener and still sees textures and fabrics colours when designing in terms of florals and plants.

He never creates in Paris

Christian leaves Paris to design his collections, choosing a hot location when working on summer collections, and a cooler climate for winter collections.

Nail polish started it all

The red sole was created when he stole his assistants red nail varnish to cover the existing black sole on a shoe (the Pensée, like the one below), he loved the result he produced them all with a red lacquered sole from then on.

christian louboutin pensee

He's a bit of a legend in the music world

The brand name has been referenced in multiple pop songs over the years, Jennifer Lopez even released a track simply called ‘Louboutins’.

He makes shoes out of random things

Christian once made a shoe from an old Guinness Beer can for his Spring Summer 1994 collection. He also loves using extraordinary materials for his creations, including mackerel and salmon. Christian once decorated a shoe from rubbish he found in a bin at his factory – he now calls them his time capsule. Mule Trash, Spring Summer 1999.

He once created a pair of shoes for Princess Diana

The Love shoe was inspired by the infamous photograph of Princess Diana outside the Taj Mahal, he thought she looked so lonely and sad that she should have shoes which had a message on them to gaze upon.

christian louboutin peaks

He is mates with David Lynch

Christian has enjoyed a long working relationship with David Lynch, from a collection of Fetish inspired designs to a recent design inspired by Lynch’s iconic Twin Peaks, the Shoe Peaks bag (picture above).

He could join the circus (kind of)

Christian is an able trapeze artist, having taken lessons for many years. A trapeze rope hangs in the high ceilinged photography studio at the CL office in Paris. He also loves dance and once performed in a tap dancing video.

He's a film star

Christian once appeared in a Chinese language film called My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.