If you have ever dreamed to design your own shoes with Christian Louboutin signature, it can now become reality. In Christian Louboutin’s Paris Atelier, elite artisans work with you to bring your footwear wishes to life through its new Made to Measure service. How it works? Each private client’s perfectly sculpted pair of shoes or boots begins with a trip to the Atelier, located in Paris’s 1st Arrondissement.
Then, the Atelier director measures your feet at more than a dozen key points. You will then step into foam moulds, creating detailed, three-dimensional imprints of your feet, ensuring a perfect fit.
Next, select your preferred silhouette, including heel height and toe shape, as well as your desired material and embellishments. Each shoe style, including Louboutin classics like the Pigalle, Fifi and So Kate, requires a different, custom-made last, and all embellishments – be they bows, sequins or strass – are applied painstakingly by hand.
After you select your last, talented artisans begin the meticulous work of Last Adjustment, or the sculpting of three-dimensional casts of your foot (now that’s a souvenir)! The process commences with the addition of layers of leather to a standard shoe last and reshaping them to match the measurements of your feet. Once the mould is made, artisans create the first draft of your shoe by hand in leather, no matter the final materials selected.
All of the elements are hand-cut to your specifications, and then passed along to another specialist for sewing and assembly.
When the first shoe is complete, it’s time to make your way back to the City of Lights for a private fitting in the Atelier. Once satisfied with the fit, the shoe is completed and decked with special embellishments chosen exclusively by the client.
The last step that allows you to be the owner of the most unique pair of shoes in the world! Once the design, development and finishing processes have concluded, your shoes, made to measure for you (and you alone), then go through bichonnage, or a final quality check by the Atelier. Rest assured, no shoe leaves the Atelier without the approval of Christian Louboutin himself, or without the brand’s signature red-lacquered soles.