Everybody in the pool!
Paris Fashion Week 2024 has been called the “fashion Olympics” — and Christian’s Louboutin’s splashy show worked overtime to earn the annual event its nickname, ending with the stiletto designer and pal David LaChapelle in a pool, fully clothed.
Friday night at the Piscine Molitor in the City of Light, the luxury brand explored unchartered waters — with the historic swimming baths taking the place of a traditional runway, which models entered by way of a pump-shaped slide while wearing Louboutin shoes.
The fashion house enlisted the help of 15 French Olympic artistic swimmers to perform a synchronized routine to show off the new Miss Z heels for the presentation, titled “Paris is Louboutining,” a play on “Paris is Burning.”
Louboutin, the founder of his namesake brand, told Women’s Wear Daily that he likes “to do things with shoes where you’re not expecting to see shoes” — and was gobsmacked that the chrome pumps, described as looking like “shells” underwater — held up during rehearsals.
“We discovered that you can swim in Louboutins — and they still look great,” said Louboutin, who enlisted the help of photographer and director David LaChapelle to create the sensational event.
On a backdrop of dancers in windows — and, not to mention, a firefighter on a stripper pole — the troupe, wearing metallic pumps and matching one-piece bathing suits, put on a 15-minute show choreographed by Blanca Li, a performance that has since gone viral on social media and hailed as “epic” and “creative.”
To close out the show, Louboutin, Li and LaChapelle jumped into the pool fully clothed to join the ensemble who was already in the water. Louboutin, of course, took the stiletto slide for a spin.
“Great show,” wrote one viewer on TikTok. “Seems to challenge the perception that Louboutins are uncomfortable and you can’t do things in them! Proves you CAN!”
For the swimmers, the fashion fete seemed like “a piece of cake,” Louboutin told WWD — although a few of the athletes might have come out of the pool with a few battle scars.
“We are swimming really close to each other,” Olympian Claudia Janvier told the New York Times.
“I have a bunch of bruises that I had to cover up from getting stabbed with a stiletto.”
Louboutin told WWD that he was inspired by the Paris Olympic Games this summer, telling the outlet he has “always loved synchronized swimming” — even his two daughters were swimming before they could walk, he quipped.
“We all love Olympic athletes, who represent the best of humanity,” he said. “We want to create a beautiful, escapist moment.”
This is not the only show to converge sport and style.
While athletes have peppered the front rows at the international fashion weeks this month, US gymnast Jordan Chiles walked the runway at Kim Shui’s New York Fashion Week presentation in Hudson Yards and US rock climber Brooke Raboutou hit the catwalk for designer Cecilie Bahnsen.
Meanwhile, archer and artist SAGG Napoli fired arrows down the Dior catwalk during Paris Fashion Week.
