More precisely, “What Happened to Christian Louboutin’s 160mm Heels?”
The Christian Louboutin brand is deeply associated with skyscraper heels in the fashion industry. When you look at the heritage of Louboutin, all its designs were pushing the boundaries of footwear; primarily making heels higher than ever before. This approach does not fit consistently with the Bauhaus design principle of ‘form follows function’. Instead, the form of a heel is more important than its function for Louboutin. Louboutin heels reached the height of 170mm a couple of years ago.
I know it is not a big thing, but Engineering In Heels captured my attention with one of her recent videos. She said you couldn’t get 150 or 160mm Louboutin heels anymore.
Surprised, I visited the Louboutin website and noticed that most of the product range is now around 100mm and lower. Shoe options with a 120mm heel height are limited, with only the So Kate and Pigalle range reaching this height, and there were very few 130, 140 and 150mm heels. Given that Louboutin was famous for outrageous heel height, I can imagine many Louboutin fans are not happy with this change in direction.
It is likely that two factors underpin this decision. Based on my experience working with shoe designers, very high heeled shoes do not sell in large quantities. People may love to see them, but they don’t wish to wear them, and this impacts the revenue of a business. As Louboutin is making more than half-a-million shoes per year, they need to consider customers’ taste. However, a well-renowned high heel brand choosing to make average height heels is a bit like making Ferraris more fuel-efficient. It fundamentally contradicts the brand’s heritage and DNA.
The second reason that may have resulted in reducing heel height may be that competitors are not making skyscraper heels anymore. Louboutin, therefore, may have elected to follow the trend to keep their revenue high and their shoes in demand.
Or has Mr Louboutin simply become bored with designing skyscraper heels?
What do you think?
Thank you very much to EngineeringInHeels for the photos. Follow her journey on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/engineeringinheels
[columns_row width=”half”]
[column]
[/column]
[column]
[/column]
[/columns_row]
