With their red soles and vertiginous heels, there’s already something a little subversive about Christian Louboutin’s shoes. But in Fetish, his photo collaboration with David Lynch—a man who knows a little something about kinkiness himself—Louboutin took the black leather gloves off. These shoes and boots are definitely not made for walking. The show opened at the Galerie du Passage in Paris yesterday; we caught up with the designer after the launch party.

How did the collaboration come about?

David had a big exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in March and he asked me to do some shoes for it. Out of that, I thought of asking him to do some photographs for me—he’s my favorite director. I said, “I’m thinking of designing fetish shoes for you,” and he didn’t let me finish my sentence. He said yes right away.

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Why were you interested in fetish shoes?

I’ve always heard about shoe fetishists, both men and women. It became a sort of exercise, one that allows me to do things I can’t do in my regular line. Making these shoes is closer to my primary joy, my drawing, because they’re devoted to static pleasure; there’s no motion, they’re for the bed. Real-life shoes are less like your imagination.

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What was working with David like?

It was a full process with two people. David has a huge will to please a person; he’s really dedicated. I stayed the whole two days—I’m even in some of the pictures.

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Did he have any requirements? Any requests?

He said, “No bones.” He didn’t want the girls to be too skinny, so we chose two models from the Crazy Horse. And he asked for sunglasses that would look like the black bar over girls’ faces in pornography from the twenties and thirties, so we built the glasses in my atelier.

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Will you work together again?

Yes, when we both decide the project is right.

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Are the shoes for sale?

At first, they weren’t going to be. But there were so many people who wanted to buy a photograph and the shoes in it. So, there are five prints of each photo, and five pairs of corresponding shoes available.

—Nicole Phelps

Photo: Denko Ivanisevic

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