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Woodcut of shoemakers from 1568

A cobbler in Seattle, Washington.

A shoemaker at the Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum

Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or craftsmanship.

Shoemakers or cordwainers (cobblers being, historically, those who repair shoes) may produce a range of footwear items, including shoes, boots, sandals, clogs and moccasins. Such items are generally made of leather, wood, rubber, plastic, jute or other plant material, and often consist of multiple parts for better durability of the sole, stitched to a leather upper.

Traditional shoemaking[link]

Sewing machine for shoemaking and shoe repair, and also bag and heavy fabric repair work. This machine is manually operated with a hand crank. The foot can be turned in any direction which changes the direction of the material feed. This machine is owned by a roadside shoe repairman in Haikou City, Hainan Province, China. (A piece of strap is in placed between the foot and work surface.)

Most shoemakers use a last—made traditionally of iron or wood, but now often of plastic— on which to form the shoe. Some lasts are straight, while curved lasts come in pairs: one for left shoes, the other for right shoes.

Traditional shoemaker at the Ethnographic Museum of Western Liguria, Cervo, Italy

Traditional shoemakers used to use more than 15 different techniques of making shoes. Some of these are: pegged construction, English Welted (machine-made versions are referred to as "Goodyear Welted" after the inventor of the technique), goyser welted, Norwegian, stitchdown, turnout, German sewn, moccasin, bolognese stitched, and blake-stitched.

Some types of ancient and traditionally-made shoes include:

• Furs wrapped around feet, and sandals wrapped over them: used by Romans fighting in northern Europe.
• Clogs: wooden shoes, often filled with straw to warm the feet.
• Moccasins: simple shoes, often without the durability of joined shoes (although different types of leather have different wear characteristics).

In modern times[link]

Current crafters, in developing regions or supply constrained areas may use used or surplus^{[disambiguation needed ]} car or truck tire tread sections as an inexpensive and plentiful material resource to make strong shoe soles or sandals with.

The Society for Creative Anachronism offers some advice about making period shoes for people engaged in the leisure activity of historical reenactment.

Traditional shoemakers still exist today, and create custom shoes containing no plastics, paper, or nails (which rust, eventually).

In popular culture[link]

The shoemaking profession makes a number of appearances in popular culture, such as in stories about shoemaker's elves, and the proverb "The shoemaker's children go barefoot".^[1] The patron saint of shoemakers is Saint Crispin.

Chefs and cooks sometimes use the term "shoemaker" as an insult to others who have prepared sub-standard food, possibly by overcooking, implying that the chef in question has made his or her food as tough as shoe leather or hard leather shoe soles, and thus may be in the wrong profession. Similarly, to "cobble" can mean not only to make or mend shoes, but "to put together clumsily; to bungle."^[2]

Famous shoemakers[link]

Rabbi Yochanan Hasandlar, a famous sage of the Third Century AD, might have earned his living as a sandal maker, though the nickname might also indicate that he was a native of Alexandria.^[3]

Pope Urban IV, born Jacques Pantaléon, was the son of a cobbler of Troyes, France.

Eva Shoemaker, a modern shoemaker, made her living by bartering with nearby colleagues. She tendered to the Notre Dame^{[disambiguation needed ]} community in Los Angeles.

See also[link]

• Cobbler
• Cordwainer
• Order of the Knights of St. Crispin, an American labor union of 50,000 shoemakers c. 1870
• Sandler
• Shoe repair shop

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shoemakers

1. ^ "Proverb Quotes". http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_shoemakers_children_go/159047.html. 
2. ^ The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cobble
3. ^ "Avoth, Chapter Four, Mishnah Eleven - Reading for Wednesday, September 22, 2003". Mishnahyomit Archives. http://uscj.org/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0310&L=mishnahyomit&D=0&P=2816. Retrieved 20 October 2010. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Shoemaking

Look up shoemaking in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Shoemaker's Workshop - The Canadian Museum of Civilization
• "Bespoke Shoemaking a guide to handmade shoemaking", a book teaching traditional hand shoemaking.
• Video interview with Kevin Wright of the Modern Shoe Hospital in Newfoundland, Canada

Christian Louboutin (pronounced [kʁis.tjɑ̃ lu.bu.tɛ̃]; b. 7 January 1963) is a French footwear designer whose footwear has incorporated shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Louboutin was born in Paris and grew up in Paris's 12th arrondissement. He was the only son of Roger, an ébéniste,^[2] and Irene, a homemaker, and he has three sisters. He was expelled from school three times and ran away from home at the age of 12,^[3] at which point his indulgent mother allowed him to move out to live at a friend's house.^[4] Although Louboutin faced much opposition following his decision to leave school early, he claims that his resolve was strengthened after watching an interview on TV with Sophia Loren in which she introduced her sister, saying she had to leave school when she was only 12, but, when she turned 50, she got her degree. He later remarked, "Everybody applauded! And I thought, 'Well, at least if I regret it I'm going to be like the sister of Sophia Loren!'"

Landscape architect Louis Benech has been his partner since 1997. Louboutin and his partner spend time between their homes in Paris’s 1st arrondissement,^[5] a fisherman's cottage in Lisbon,^[6] a palace in Aleppo,^[7] a houseboat on the Nile christened Dahabibi-my love boat, and a house in Luxor. The Luxor domicile is a former craftsman’s workshop, made of earthen bricks, to which he has added an additional floor and a rooftop belvedere.^[8] Additionally, he also shares a 13th-century castle in the Vendée with his business partner Bruno Chamberlain.^[4]

Louboutin claims that his unusual pastimes include trapeze flying, inspired by the film Wings of Desire, and that inspirations come from showgirls and music halls — not fashion (or la mode), which he asserts becomes quickly dated.

Career[link]

Christian Louboutin Ltd.

Type	Private,S.A
Industry	Consumer goods
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Paris, France
Key people	Christian Louboutin, Founder Bruno Chamberland, CEO[9] Alexis Mourot, COO & GM[9] Priya Mohindra,U.S Communications Director[10]
Products	Shoes,Purses,Wallets
Revenue	$250 million (31 December 2010) on 600,000 pairs of shoes a year[11]
Employees	420 (2011) [4]
Website	christianlouboutin.com

He began sketching shoes in his early teens, ignoring his academic studies. Going through a punk phase, he was in a few films, including 1979 cult classic Race d'ep. Under the title The Homosexual Century, a film which attracted an English-language audience. His first job was at the Folies Bergères, the caberet where he assisted the entertainers backstage. He was also a fixture on the city's party scene, clubbing his nights away alongside Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol.^[4]

His little formal training included drawing and the decorative arts at the Académie d'Art Roederer. Louboutin claims his fascination with shoes began in 1976 when he visited the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie on the avenue Daumesnil. It was there that he saw a sign from Africa forbidding women wearing sharp stilettos from entering a building for fear of damage to the extensive wood flooring. This image stayed in his mind, and he later used this idea in his designs. "I wanted to defy that," Louboutin said. "I wanted to create something that broke rules and made women feel confident and empowered."^[12]

Fascinated by world cultures, he ran away in his teens to Egypt and spent a year in India. Louboutin returned to Paris in 1981, where he assembled a portfolio of drawings of elaborate high heels. He brought it to the top couture houses. The effort resulted in employment with Charles Jourdan. Subsequently, Louboutin met Roger Vivier, who claims to have invented the stiletto, or spiked-heel shoe. Louboutin became an apprentice in Vivier's atelier.

Going on to serve as a freelance designer, Louboutin designed women's shoes for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Maud Frizon. In the late 1980s, he gave turned away from fashion to become a landscape gardener and to contribute to Vogue but missed working with shoes and set up his company in 1991.

With funds from two backers, he opened a Paris shoe salon in 1991 with Princess Caroline of Monaco as his first customer. She complimented the store one day when a fashion journalist was present, and the journalist's subsequent publication of Princess's comments helped greatly to increase Louboutin's renown. Clients such as Diane von Fürstenberg and Catherine Deneuve followed. Later, those interested in his stiletto heels have included Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian. Sarah Jessica Parker wore a pair of shoes by Louboutin for her wedding.

Louboutin has topped the Luxury Institute's annual Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) for three years; the brand's offerings were declared the Most Prestigious Women's Shoes in 2007, 2008, and 2009.^[13][14][15]

Shoes[link]

Louboutin helped bring stilettos back into fashion in the 1990s and 2000s, designing dozens of styles with heel heights of 120mm (4.72 inches) and higher. The designer's professed goal has been to "make a woman look sexy, beautiful, to make her legs look as long as [he] can." While he does offer some lower-heeled styles, Louboutin is generally associated with his dressier evening-wear designs incorporating jeweled straps, bows, feathers, patent leather, and other similar decorative touches.^[16] Despite being known for his celebrity clients, he rarely gives shoes away – offering discounts instead to his high-profile fans. This policy also extends to his personal family, because he feels that giving shoes away as gifts is unimaginative.^[17]

His single biggest client is Danielle Steel, who is reputed to own over 6,000 pairs and is known to have purchased up 80 pairs at a time when shopping at his stores.^[18]

Christian Louboutin vs. Yves Saint Laurent[link]

In 2011, Christian Louboutin company filed a trademark infringement of its red-soled shoes against designer Yves Saint Laurent.^[19] The firm is expecting that the YSL shoe design will be revoked and is seeking US $1 million in damages.^[20] However, in August 2011, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero denied the firm's request to stop the sale of women's shoes with red soles by Yves Saint Laurent. The judge questioned the validity of the trademark, writing, "Louboutin's claim would cast a red cloud over the whole industry, cramping what other designers do, while allowing Louboutin to paint with a full palette."^[21] Judge Marrero also wrote, "Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection, even if it has gained enough public recognition in the market to have acquired secondary meaning."^[22] Jewelry company Tiffany & Co., which has its blue box trademarked, filed a amicus curiae brief focusing on trademarking a color. Fashion periodical WWD reported that Tiffany's brief supports Louboutin's appeal to reverse the decision made by Judge Marrero.^[23]

Boutiques[link]

The list of distributors and location of the stores can be found on the Christian Louboutin Web site. A new ladies boutique has been scheduled to open in Turkey in 2012.^[24]

In the spring of 2012,the company also plans to open its first men's store in New York City, boasting over 1,000 square feet of space and conveniently located next to its existing Horatio Street store.^[25] From previous experience in his Paris Store, Louboutin claimed that women feel uncomfortable when men stare at them while they try on shoes, hence a separate stores.^[26]

The first Louboutin Men's Boutique, Christian Louboutin Boutique Homme on Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris, opened in the summer of 2012.

Christian Louboutin Miami is located on 40th Street in the Design District of Miami, Florida.^[27] Louboutin chose to open a store in Miami because of the mix of businesses and the small urban scale, and because of his obvious following there. During Miami Basel art fair when the store opened in 2009, he said, "You don't get this with Europeans—but Americans actually come into my office in Paris to meet me, and a lot of those people are from Miami." The boutique stocks Louboutin's most colorful, strappy, precarious styles, on account of the subtropical climate and the fact that, Louboutin says, "people barely walk in the street."^[28]

The 2,400-square-foot space was designed by Eric Clough and 212box.^[28] Above a steel awning shaped like a Louboutin shoe in profile, with a red underside to boot, pink orchids sprout from the coral-stone facade. Still more orchids project from a wall in the entry gallery. Pantyhose have been recycled by Dutch artist Madeleine Berkhemer into a multi-colored sculpture that stretches over the empty concrete floor with some of Louboutin’s signature shoes dangling in the overhead tangle of nylon "like insects trapped in a psychedelic spider’s web."^[27] This L-shape space wraps two sides of a rectangular volume clad almost entirely in one-way mirror: a box that contains the merchandise for sale while allowing people who've just come in the front door to "witness other people falling in love with the shoes," Clough says.^[28]

The inside areas in the store are defined by lush red carpeting. Blue, blown-glass chandeliers hang from the ceilings.^[27] Hieroglyphics, symbols and Braille are carved onto wooden Codebox Tiles that line some of the store's interior walls.^[29] hiding the words of a poem by contemporary American poet Lyn Hejinian in plain sight, in the etched wooden tiles lining the gallery wall behind the orchids. "This is the way I / Want to go in and / Out of heaven... / Windows full at 5pm / My skull a place / Except that I think of space as the more exciting," the lines read.^[28] These coded tiles appear in many Louboutin stores designed by Clough around the world, including São Paulo, Brazil.

Fighting Fraud Online[link]

Branded genuine Louboutin shoes are sold in-store and online through various luxury goods retailers such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Joseph, Browns, Matches, Cricket and Cruise and online through Net-A-Porter and The Outnet in the UK. Barneys, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom sell genuine Louboutin in the US.

Online, the Louboutin brand is under constant attack from sellers of fakes and knock-offs. Louboutin's own website now sells some of their products online in the US^[30] but this is the only legitimate domain with the word Louboutin in it to do so. Louboutin's main website contains a prominent note stating that any other domain name containing the word "Louboutin" is very likely to be selling counterfeit goods.

In the last few years, the company has served hundreds of DMCA notices on Google to remove many sites selling fake goods from their search results.^[31] Even after this action, thousands of sites remain online.

The company has recently set up a separate website^[32] focused on protecting their brand, and detailing more than 3 000 websites that sell fake goods, many of which have been closed down. The site also contains summaries of legal actions taken, including raids on factories with photographs and videos of the mass destruction of counterfeit goods.

References[link]

Periodicals[link]

• Footwear News, 1 June 1992, p. S8; 9 December 2002, p. 50
• Harper's Bazaar, December 1999, p. 104; April 2001, p. 226
• Newsweek International, 24 February 2003, p. 48
• People, 10 February 2003, pp. 87–88
• Vogue, June 2004, p. 206

External links[link]

• Christian Louboutin Official Site (in English)
• Simpson, Aislinn (30 June 2008). "Christian Louboutin shoes top sexiness poll". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2221378/Christian-Louboutin-shoes-top-sexiness-poll.html. Retrieved 8 July 2008. 
• Armstrong, Lisa (5 July 2008). "How to get dressed: Christian Louboutin, the most wanted shoe brand". The Times (London). http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article4241482.ece. Retrieved 8 July 2008. 
• Christian Louboutin designer profile at Fashion Model Directory

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