Despite the crippling effects of sky-high stilettos, a new generation of fans can’t stay out of Christian Louboutin heels. Photo: The New York Times
Over the past year, Christian Louboutin heels have been effectively soldered to the feet of pop star Addison Rae.
“I love to walk ridiculous amounts of miles in them, which I actually did recently, and I have crazy blisters on my toes right now,” she said, tenderly holding a pair of the savagely sharp stilettos in a recent GQ video about 10 things she said she “can’t live” without.
Rae doesn’t only “walk a mile" in her Louboutins. She rehearses in them, and she performs in them.
“If you see me out and about, you’ll most likely see me in Louboutins… if not on, they’re always in my car for easy access,” Rae said in an email. “Just in case!”
In her music video Times Like These, she and her dancers gyrate and bend in Louboutins.
“There were all these red scuff marks,” Dara Allen, Rae’s stylist, said of the floor after the routine.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Louboutins, often referred to as “Loubs”, reigned supreme in the more buttoned-up sides of the media and fashion worlds.
It was the ultimate professional purchase, meant to go with a pencil skirt or shift dress.
“It was a status symbol,” said Jennifer Goldszer, who has saved 11 pairs from her boutique public relations firm days in New York.
“In the meeting, you cross your leg and you see the red sole, and you’re like, ‘OK, she gets it.’”
Christian Louboutin created the brand in 1991 and developed the red soles a year later, after seeing his assistant painting her nails red.
The lacquered outsoles are referred to as “red bottoms”, and when those soles touch mortal ground, every scuff and scratch shows up like scarification.
The upkeep can be pricey. Getting a pair resoled can cost US$65 (approximately RM275), and repainting US$165 (RM699).
For all of the door-to-car luxuriousness, Louboutins are notoriously uncomfortable. A Reddit thread advises people to blow-dry the leather to soften it or apply blister blocker.
In articles from the 1990s and early 2000s, Vogue writers lamented deformed toes and bulbous bunions, hobbling to foot gurus and top-dollar podiatrists.
“I literally broke my metatarsal three times in my 20s because I wore heels every day on the pavement,” said Savannah Engel, founder of the public relations firm Savi.
“I walked on and off the subway in six-inch heels.”
Engel got her first pair of Louboutins in her freshman year of college.
“Heaven forbid I brought a change of shoes,” she said.
A few years after Engel entered the world of New York public relations, legacy media began to shift.
In the mid-2010s, Conde Nast moved its headquarters to One World Trade Center. There was also a pivot to digital, and dress codes began to change.
Addison Rae in her Louboutin heels in New York. Photo: The New York TimesAnd then there was the straw – or the Loub – that broke the camel’s back. In 2014, the stiletto heel of a prophetic Louboutin got lodged at the top of the Conde Nast escalator, and its battered red bottom flipped up like a flare gun.
Note: Christian Louboutin declined through a representative to be interviewed for this article.
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The pendulum swings
This past year, a clip from Recho Omondi’s podcast, The Cutting Room Floor, went viral when “image architect” Law Roach spoke about how he puts Zendaya in Louboutin’s So Kate pumps – heels that are 120mm high, or a bit less than the height of a soda can, 4.7inches.
Devon Lee Carlson, an influencer and a founder of Wildflower Cases, recently posted a photo of herself near the Seine in jeans and a black top, flashing a Loub to the gushy tune of Sometimes by Britney Spears.
The red bottom-baring image was accompanied by a quote ripped from a 2014-era Pinterest board: “Put on a cute outfit, call ur girls, messy bun, get it done #summer2025 is here.”
The Louboutins’ resurrection may indeed be tied to the current mid-2010s trend cycle when the red soles regularly dotted Pinterest boards and Tumblr scrolls.
“It was simpler times, on our parents’ phone plan,” said Nicolaia Rips, who writes for I-D magazine.
“Gen Z is now approaching their late 20s, life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and they retreat into the safety of middle school trends but with grown-up money.”
One person who lives in her Louboutins as if they are everyday sneakers is choreographer Lexee Smith, who works with Rae.
More often than not, she dances in them.
“The obsession just keeps getting more and more and more and more real,” Smith said.
“I can’t really even leave the house without wearing a heel – and most of the time it is a Loub. I need the extra inches to feel in my power.”
So what exactly is that power? Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and the author of Fetish: Fashion, Sex & Power, noted that heels can transform even as they disfigure.
“You have this concept that high heels are super-feminine and super-erotic, and they also have that kind of trans quality to them,” she said.
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Beauty is pain
While there is buzz around the shoe, there has not been a significant uptick in new sky-high Louboutin purchases, according to the shopping platform Lyst (its most popular Louboutins are the Super Loubi studded flip-flops).
But the secondhand market shows a spike that points to a thriftier generation.
“Gen Z is driving much of that momentum,” said Noelle Sciacca of the RealReal.
There, Louboutin purchases have nearly doubled year-over-year, she said, and searches are up 34%. New Gen Z buyers are up 82%.
Vintage seems to be the way to go to nab a pair of Louboutins. In the GQ video, Rae revealed that she buys her Louboutins on eBay. Smith said her first pair from a thrift shop once belonged to the wife of country singer Dierks Bentley.
Still, the Louboutin resurgence feels deeper than a mere rehashed trend, perhaps suggesting a more layered “beauty is pain” perspective.
“It’s a painful shoe,” Allen, Addison Rae’s stylist, said.
“You’re not really meant to be walking around in them all day. But to do it feels like this effortful ritualistic experience that’s like, ‘OK, I am entering into my glamour mode, and I am going to do it no matter the physical pain because the emotional reward is just so much more.’” – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
