Just last month, Christian Louboutin opened a new flagship store in Hong Kong, and rather than solely targeting the female market, the store is dedicated to the designer’s men’s line. Although Hong Kong already has several store locations in the city, the men’s boutique is the first of its kind in the area and one of the few across the globe.
The iconic red sole stiletto designer tapped into the men’s market just a short five years ago. A clear frontrunner in the world of women’s shoes and the female footwear equivalent of a Rolex as so eloquently described by GQ, his idea for innovating a line for men came about when the singer Mika approached him for a business proposition, asking him to design all his shoes for his tour back in 2009. It was a new opportunity for Louboutin, but he wondered why Mika would ask women’s shoe designer to design products for him.
Having grown up with sisters who were thrilled every time they slipped their feet into the French designer’s sky high heels, Mika wanted to channel that same excitement for fans and himself during his performances, and to him, Louboutin was the perfect candidate to execute this mission. Since the debut of his first pairs of men’s shoes on the stage, Louboutin has gained a number of celebrity fans, from Kanye West to Elton John–all paying customers, as the designer never gifts shoes.
With his range of products extending from flats to the Antonio Booty as shown on the Lyst men’s shoe page, Louboutin has a number of styles that cater to the fashion-forward, modern man. The men’s sales in Hong Kong and China trail behind global percentages, but the hope is that the new boutique in Central will change the command for men’s Louboutins, with the location being “significantly more experimental and less conservative than their Western counterparts.” While the women’s shoes thrive on the sex appeal of the aesthetic, the line for men is an amalgamation of design elements that are well suited for the performer, not just limited to celebrities–the shoes are for anyone who like to put on a show, making Hong Kong one of the best places in the world for a Christian Louboutin men’s store.
The boutique is located at On Lan Street in Central, Hong Kong.
Image Credit: ChristianLouboutin.com