Yesterday, at his L.A. boutique on Robertson Boulevard, a grey-fedora-and-pink-jacket-bedecked Christian Louboutin made a rare in-store appearance to sign shoes and show off his spring 2010 collection. Fans lined up thirty and forty deep to have their red-soles signed by the designer, who sat behind a table armed with multicolored Sharpies and an Ice Blended from Coffee Bean. "I think women still see that I take a lot of pleasure in designing the shoe," he told us, obviously pleased at the turnout. "The shoes are very much at the service of women. They're here to make them feel good and beautiful."
While some women were clearly there just to see the designer, a good number (we noticed a lot of mother-daughter pairs) also came there to s-h-o-p. Clients gravitated toward the metal-heeled Big Lips pump and the Cage Bootie, two of the store's bestsellers of the season.
What else was on Louboutin's Los Angeles agenda, we asked? An intimate dinner with some friends at Chateau Marmont, a bit of antique shopping, and "I want to go to Pasadena to visit the [botanical] gardens." On Monday night, he'll be on the East Coast at the Met Costume Institute gala, with, rumor has it, one of the Olsens on his arm.
