A happy accident: Louboutin on Sabya collaboration

When Christian agreed to the collaboration, I thought, oh my God, he is serious. Now I will have to do something, fit the shoes!” says couturier Sabyasachi, talking of how he came to join hands with iconic French shoemaker Christian Louboutin for the opening show of the India Couture Week in Delhi. Models stood towering in Christian’s heels as they showed off Sabyasachi’s creations on the ramp, and the duo spoke to us after the show, saying they have a lot in common, including their love for red.
How did the collection and the collaboration come about?
Sabya: The collection was inspired by the bater, the most common hunting bird of India.I wanted to do something very strong, dark, predatory and sexual. When Christian agreed to do the show, we thought we would do something cosmopolitan, modern. We do a lot of traditional weddings in India, but there is a lot of space for contemporary weddings and I thought that for someone who does the most feminine and powerful shoes, it would be lovely to do something that pays a tribute to his craftsmanship and meets the demands of the Indian consumer and market. I approached him for the collaboration. He was in my Mumbai store and I rarely go to Mumbai, so I think we were destined to meet. We started speaking about Kolkata and I asked him if he would do the line of shoes for my forthcoming show and he just said yes. I think both of us are creatively very similar people.
Christian: I’d call it a happy accident. I was on my way to my store and I wanted to see Sabyasachi’s store. It is a beautiful store and he started talking about his hometown Kolkata.
This is the most bling we’ve ever seen in a Sabyasachi collection.
Sabya: People think that doing something overly glamourous in fashion is bad, but I think fashion misleads people into believing that women should not be glamourous in a very straightforward way. In India, the entire concept is changing. Earlier women used to dress up for women, now they dress up for the men, and men love women to be beautiful, feminine, sexual. This collection was a celebration of women for men as well.
Christian: I was looking at one of the male models and he was looking at one of the girls and I was imagining the communication between the two, as if he was thinking, you look beautiful. It was an engaging conversation between man and woman.
Were you consciously aiming at a more young, modern woman?
Sabya: It was a conscious decision to tweak the collection from our typical traditional designs, as we are very well established in the traditional business of weddings, but the brand can do so much more. We have to reach out to a younger audience. Today, if you look at the economy, it would be foolish for any big design house to not speak to a much more young, Internet-savvy, internationally aware customer.
How has the Delhi couture consumer evolved?
Sabya: Delhi loves to dress, Mumbai is far more casual. Weddings is a recession-proof industry, and everyone wants to spend big money on weddings. People in North India especially used to have only one or two wedding functions earlier, and now they have seven or eight because they want to dress up more, celebrate money. This is one of the reasons we have put out a collection which is not just about getting married. I always tell a girl that when you get married, do it traditionally. But with so many functions, like sangeet, mehendi, women can come out in different forms. Everybody in India right now has become body conscious and more fit, this collection was an ode to the new Indian woman.
Christian, what is your idea of Indian fashion?
Christian: One thing which is very precisely Indian is its love for culture and tradition, which is not seen so much in the West in terms of fashion. It is something extremely fresh to me. And playing with tradition, not necessarily sticking to it. Mixing real Indian tradition in fashion, and doing away with the French tradition of couture – it is a rare thing. We can see it in the work of Sabyasachi, who can handle everything on his own without having to refer to French fashion. There is a full fashion movement dedicated to India, inspired by tradition, and after travelling all over the world, I am very impressed with what I see here.
Red is not usually a part of your collections, Sabya.
I wanted to do something that spoke of Christian’s house colour. I love the colour red. Many people do not know that when I did have a house — now I live in a hotel — the colour of my bedroom was red. It is a colour that calms me down. All my stores are red.