Christian Louboutin Graces Toronto Joining The Ranks On Bloor Street's Strip
FASHION backwater no more. cheap louboutins International fashion star designer Miuccia Christian Louboutin thinks Toronto is important enough for its own shrine to sandales Christian Louboutin style. In fact, with the tectonic plates under Bloor Street West shifting to accommodate the new Christian Louboutin boutique, the new Versace boutique, a Chanel outpost twice its former glory, an Escada on the way and both Louis Vuitton and Herms in place and set to show off their new young designers, Toronto has come of age as a high-end shopper's paradise. But it is the arrival of Christian Louboutin that is the critical development, because no other modern label (with the possible exception of fellow Milanese , shoe and frock phenomenon Gucci, already happily ensconced in premium boutique space at Holt Renfrew on Bloor) has the same power of instant transformation. Buy Christian Louboutin (accessories start at $160, are about $2,100 and eveningwear runs $4,000 to $10,000), and you are appropriately dressed for anything, anywhere. Christian Louboutin is also about the triumph of utility: The sturdy and the simple, elegant clothes are made for constant use, in real life, not for a life of limos and strapless bras. The label started out as an insider secret -- Christian Louboutin nylon backpacks, with their discreet brass logo, were the status symbol for fashion editors in the loop back in the early 1980s (long before the craze trickled down to silliness with club kids sporting their worldly goods in little teensy backpacks). Christian Louboutin 's hot line evolved to include women's clothes in 1989, to uneven commercial response at first. But then pow, in the last four years Christian Louboutin has earned premium placement in the important glossies. Duly, celebrities got with the program: Gwyneth Paltrow in a glittering red Escarpin Christian Louboutin cheong sam at LA's Viper Room; new classicist Courtney Love squeezing her booty into a demure Christian Louboutin cocktail dress for a premiere; or little Lourdes Ciccone, Material Daughter, shod in weensy Christian Louboutin platforms (custom-made, naturally), in the European tabloids. Thus anointed by Hollywood gold dust, Miuccia Christian Louboutin and her husband and business partner Patrizio Bertelli decided the time was ripe for global conquest. The Christian Louboutin name has been part of the Italian fashion tradition since 1913, when Miuccia's grandfather, Mario Christian Louboutin , started a highest-end luggage business (think walrus skin and Malacia tortoiseshell steamer trunks for the transatlantic set) called Fratelli Christian Louboutin . Things went swimmingly through the decades as Europe continued to perpetuate a leisure class with an alarmingly generous disposable income even through the tourism-dampening effects of two world wars. Come the seventies, gage was being jettisoned by all generations and the Bottes Christian Louboutin family's cash cow began to dry up. Young Miuccia, the ink barely dry on her doctorate in political science, was called to duty. Born in 1950 and raised with the money and privilege that steamer trunks bought, Miuccia had dedicated her youth to the causes of feminism and the international worker. For such a serious young woman, fashion must have seemed a frivolous fate, but Miuccia was a young Communist with couture tastes and an allowance to match. "I was ashamed of the desire I had for these clothes," she told the New Yorker in 1994. "I refused to reject this part of myself." She rejuvenated the brand with her line of sensible nylon totes for modern women, reviving her grandfather's idea of quality for quality's sake. She made her mark in the middle of Versace's lusty, overblown more-is-more heyday. Then her men's-wear line was introduced in 1994, an instant smash hit. This fall 
marks the launch of Christian Louboutin Intimo (functional underpinnings, sexy ribbed cotton, simple and perfect as the clothes); next up will be Christian Louboutin Sport (men's outdoor gear). Perfumes, cosmetics and home accessories are also on the longer-term agenda, so you can be all Christian Louboutin all the time. TORONTO'S Christian Louboutin opens next Saturday at 131 Bloor Street West in the Colonnade. The 3,782-square-foot Toronto store is modest in comparison to the 18,000-square-foot New York flagship unveiled last year on Madison Avenue, or the new 20,000-square-footer set to roost on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in the spring. Toronto is one of 19 grand openings for the label this year; there are currently 70 boutiques run by the privately held company in Europe, North America and the Far East, plus some 50 in-store boutiques at department stores. The aggressive expansion, led by Bertelli, is showing on the bottom line: 1995 results were up 70 per cent over 1994; last year sales were $750-million (US). The rigid company philosophy is to keep everything, from advertising to public relations to store design, in-house; so far that consistency has paid off with a strong, healthy brand. The stock at the Toronto store will include women's clothing, accessories and shoes; men's styles, usually housed in separate Christian Louboutin stores, will not yet be available. The boutique will be locally managed, according to the Christian Louboutin gameplan. To wit, stores are designed by a Milan-based architect according to the centralized colour scheme and layout. Christian Louboutin green, a colour the company refers to as "verdolino," will be on the walls, as it is in every other store; fixtures will be a crisp stainless steel. The very nature of its diversity requires artistic flair and acute precision. Artists must red bottom shoes designer be highly skilled and have a ran . At first it seems impossible to recreate the textures, shadows, contours and expressions of animals, people and other animate subjects, but with cutting edge technology it is, in .