Christian Louboutin turns every girl into a princess

If you had to name one brand that every girl aspires to and desires more than any other it would have to be Christian Louboutin high heels. Disney clearly think so and have created a very cool if a little creepy brand partnership with them.

Guys, if you haven’t heard of it, you either haven’t been paying attention to any glamorous girls in your office/walking down the street or on a night out, you’re oblivious to the world or you’re just not listening to your girlfriend/wife/mistress.....

They are magic words in the same was as “I’m a professional footballer and am clearly a millionaire” used to be before John Terry ruined that brand for many years to come…..

If I say to you magic red soles then maybe you will know what I am talking about. The girl who you see wearing them proudly and showing  off their their very sexy high heels are wearing very expensive and very glamorous Christian Louboutins.

Christian Louboutin (CL) in Asia is a very competitively fought over brand, possibly because the constant sun and humidity across

Asia means that girls can dress up and wear skirts every day with bear legs and therefore the shoe market is extremely competitive.

Women over here in Asia tend to fall into three categories when it comes to CL:

They either have spent S$1,000-4,000 on a pair of shoes (or their loving boyfriend has), they have bought a knock-off copy where the red sole isn’t quite as cool, sleek and sexy as the official ones or they just go to Charles and Keith and buy a different pair of non-CL high heels every month (because at C&K you can….).

The partnership with Disney taps into the desire for every girl to be Cinderella and go to that ball with their very own Prince Charming.  CL has designed limited edition “Cinderella” slippers, well 20 pairs of amazing high heels.

As the designer said himself,  “Cinderella is one of the biggest icons if you’re designing shoes, if you think about it. You have few people who are so linked to shoes.” This time the designs are all in the name of the new Diamond Edition Blu-Ray version of Cinderella.  The shoes were unveiled at the Palais Brogniart in Paris during Haute Couture week.

The delicate and feminine peep-toe heels are made of transparent mesh and the lace is the color of Cinderella’s skin. There are two butterflies on each of the crystal embellished shoes and the entire heel is covered in crystals as well.

In other words list like Cinderealla’s glass slippers in the movie with of course, the added red sole that symbolizes they are official CL’s.

The thing that I find disconcerting about this brand partnership is that one of these products is aimed at girls under 10 and one aimed at women who want to feel confident and sexy and show their legs off who are in their 20’s and 30’s.

Other than the shoe, where’s the connection? The target audience is very different.

All that will happen is that young girls will demand or aspire (depending on how well they have been brought up) to own a pair of CL’s and he doesn’t make them for kids……so is this competition purely aimed at mums?  Presumably not the mass market mums who can’t afford the shoes but can afford a Disney  DVD as that would dilute the premium CL brand......

It's all great PR but the partnership doesn’t work for me as it won’t increase DVD sales as many of the target audience (mass generalization coming up….) won’t have kids….and won’t be buying Cinderella DVD for themselves just to win a pair of the shoes…..so great PR stunt but disconcerting in the target audience.

It’s not first time that CL has marketed towards young girls. He already has a brand partnership with Barbie who can change into various CL high heels and boots on a whim to a young girl’s heart’s content. Looks more like a domanatrix to me....

Other interesting partnerships that CL have done include one with Batallure Beauty who will create a series of products across various categories to market in non-shoe outlets and tap into the amazing brand affection and loyalty that CL buyers have towards the brand itself.

As CL says" The beauty adventure is a natural extension for someone like me, who likes to empower women and to be a part of creating beauty seems like the right next step,".

This to me is a perfect partnership and a natural brand and product extension. Luxury beauty products and luxury shoes aimed at luxury obsessed and wealthy women. You will start seeing these products in 2013.

CL has topped the Luxury Institute's annual Luxury Brand Status Index for three years -- his shoes being declared the "Most Prestigious Women's Shoes" and was recently named as one of the "All Time 100 Fashion Icons" by Time Magazine.