Christian Louboutin Ultimate Buying Guide

Christian Louboutin Ultimate Buying Guide

A lot of you ladies have come to me over the past couple of years for Christian Louboutin advice. A post I did back in 2010 (click here to see post) about sizing advice and getting your Christian Louboutin shoes to fit, is still my most popular post on my blog to date and has almost 400 comments with questions and answers regarding his shoes. With that in mind, I thought it was about time that I did a new post which is more in depth about finding the right Christian Louboutin shoe for you and your feet, as well as letting you know how to get authentic pairs at cheaper prices (no fakes) and learning to be comfortable in them.

Through my shoe life span I have had about 20 pairs of Louboutin shoes, but currently remain with 11 in my collection. I don’t wear them often at all on my blog as I class them as very special shoes and I rarely ever wear them for everyday wear. I usually only break them out on occasions that warrant fancy shoes. The main reason I don’t wear them often though is because of comfort. I find his shoes to be highly painful and it’s somewhat of an art form getting them to fit correctly without killing your feet. Msr. Louboutin himself doesn’t have any sympathy for the pain his shoes inflict as he once stated:

I really have not so much sympathy. If Tina Turner and Prince’s back-up band can perform on stage in them for three hours, you can’t tell me they are impossible to walk in. High heels are pleasure with pain.

Slightly harsh I think, ha ha! But I suppose he does have a point. I class his shoes as more for the experienced heel wearers. But, it’s not all doom and gloom, because like in my post I linked to above in the first paragraph, you can easily try the sock trick, heel grips, double sided fashion tape etc to make them fit. If you are going to be spending $500 plus on a pair of designer shoes, it’s important to make them work for you. But what I had in mind for this post was rather than just making do and trying to make the shoes work for your feet and still suffer pain (hello Pigalle!), I wanted to state some of his shoes which are more comfortable and some to avoid if you have wider feet.

Christian Louboutin Tips

For ladies with wider feet

It is a little tricky finding a pair of Louboutin’s which will be comfortable. They are always cut fairly low so they show toe cleavage and also your feet/skin can hang over the sides of the shoes due to them being cut so narrow. I think the best shoes of his to opt for if you do have wider feet would definitely be a round toe, something like the Simple pump, wedges with straps or heels with straps, some flats and some rounded toe boots. I would absolutely avoid Pigalle, they hurt even the narrowest of feet and I wouldn’t touch the Rolando either, those are quite difficult to wear. The Bianca could be doable as it’s one of the more comfy platform heels of his. But I would definitely study his shoes and choose a pair that has a more rounder or wider toe box area as it would be the best option.

For ladies with narrow feet

You will be lucky in being able to find that most of his shoes fit ok. The Pigalle or So Kate will most likely be painful as it is for me and I do have narrow feet, but it’s definitely more doable for you than others. Some of the comfier shoes I would say might work for you would definitely be the Simple pump, as those are rounder like I mentioned above, they will definitely be ok for narrow feet, but the Ron Ron, Fifi, Declic and Bianca are also great shoes to try. The Declic can be a little painful at times as I have them, but it’s not too bad in comparison to Pigalle. Some open toe varieties like Very Prive, Lady Peep, Altadama, Banana or Yolanda are also great options to try!

Christian Louboutin Sizing tips:

In general, people usually say that Louboutins run small, however I haven’t personally found them to run that small. I find them to run all over the place to be honest. I have some in size 39, 39.5, 40, 40.5 and even a couple of older styles in size 41. That’s how random the sizing can be between different styles. As with most peep toes, you can definitely go down at least half a size compared to your regular closed toe shoes of his, as there is more room in the front. But it’s really difficult for me to tell you exactly how they run due to the erratic sizing.

All Louboutins are hand made as well, so even 2 pairs of the exact same shoe can run differently. I’ve experienced this issue first hand before. I find his boots run smaller in general though, I have always needed to size up for those. So it sort of goes like this: peep toes run biggest, closed toes are pretty regular and boots run small. For reference though, I will list my sizing of my shoes here for you and the names of the shoes are click-able so you can see photos.

You can actually get custom made Louboutins as well, if you have the money! You can have your feet put in a mould in Paris at the Louboutin headquarters and then those moulds are used to make the shoes you require. So they would actually be the perfect fit for your feet, but this method costs thousands of pounds and you have to be able to go to Paris for regular fittings, which would be difficult! But the option is there! There are also made to order shoes as well, so if you like a specific shoe, but want it in a fabric or colour it doesn’t come in, you can have them ordered and made for extra money, but these can take a few months at a time to be made.

My Christian Louboutin shoe sizes:

Altadama 90 – 39
Bianca 120 – 39.5
Declic 90 – 39.5
Pigalle 85 – 39.5 (should have gone up to 40)
Pigalle 40 – 40
Declic 120 – 40
Yo Yo – 40 (I strassed my own which you can see here)
Treopli – 40.5
Sock 212 – 40.5
Clic Clac – 41 (slightly big, but 40.5 was painful)

General Tips:

One tip I always recommend would be opting for a pair of Louboutins with a platform. The reason behind this is because walking on the concrete or hard surfaces in heels without any platform, is very painful. You can feel the ground beneath your feet and it literally burns your toes with the pressure and pain. I’ve found that my Louboutins with platforms are much more comfortable than those without, due to the extra support under the balls of the feet. There is even a Pigalle Plato now which offers a small platform on the classic Pigalle style, so it’s slightly more bearable when walking. They look just as beautiful!

Another tip would be if your toes are long (like my own) then they can look a little awkward in his peep toes. The peep toe is generally only big enough to fit 2 toes, so longer toes tend to poke through and look strange. I’ve had this happen myself, and I don’t personally like how it looks, but this isn’t always the case with all of the peep toes in his collection. Some look much better than others, but if you have average length toes, none of this matters as they will fit just fine!

A tip for Pigalle would be perhaps try sizing up half a size, so your foot can move around more in the shoe and isn’t completely crammed. If they don’t slip off your feet when you size up, that’s even better! As for the ladies who can walk around in the Pigalle 120 like Kate Moss and others, I have absolutely no idea how they can do that without suffering severe pain and wanting to cry! Hats off to them is what I say! But for general sizing tips and stretching out your Louboutins, see this post.

There are some of his shoes with thicker heels like the Bibi, which I find more comfortable to walk in as you don’t wobble on the stiletto heel. These are great if you need some sturdiness in your shoes. I also find his heels with mary jane straps like the Relika to be much better because they stop the shoes from slipping off of your feet too much as well.

Learning to walk in his shoes:

This is something that I know takes practice! The best advice I can offer anyone is practice, practice and practice. I used to wear them around the house for ages, getting used to them and trying to mould them to my feet. It does help a lot and it’s much easier to wear them out once you have got used to them indoors. Granted they wont feel the same on carpet in home as they do on the concrete, they will hurt more on the latter, but getting used to them is very important.

As with all heels, it’s very tricky learning to walk in them when you first start out. I started out in 2 inch heels and used to think they were high, I then managed up to 3″, but I can now walk in 4″ just fine, even though they hurt my feet a little. My preferred heel height is 3.5″ as I find it’s tall enough, but it doesn’t have that little bit of extra height which tips me over the edge and causes pain. I can’t do anything over 4.5″ in steepness though.

When I say I can walk in 4″ heels, I mean a steepness of 4″, so that could be a 5 inch heel, but it has a 1″ platform making the total steepness only 4″. I would recommend walking around bare foot on your tip toes a lot, so you get used to walking on the balls of your feet. That’s how a lot of ladies walk in such high heels, on their tip toes as I have seen them walk over grates and not worry about the heel slipping down. But since I generally prefer comfort and look after my feet a lot (I don’t want bunions etc) I don’t go over 3.5″ or bend my toes out of shape too much. I think finding the height you are most comfortable with and sticking to it is the best option.

Buying Louboutins

Authentic retailers online for Christian Louboutin shoes:

There are loads of places online and in store where you can buy his shoes. Many of you will have already heard of the stores like Barney’s and Net-A-Porter etc as they are very well known shops, but I thought I would list all of the places I know that are online and you can purchase his shoes from.

Barneys New York

Bergdorf Goodman

Christian Louboutin

Harrods

Luisaviaroma

Matches Fashion

My Theresa

Neiman Marcus

Net-A-Porter

Nordstrom

Saks Fifth Avenue

Selfridges

SSENSE

Finding Christian Louboutin shoes for discounted prices:

There are LOADS of websites online that claim to be authentic retailers of Christian Louboutin with prices below $200, but they are NOT real, they are FAKE. I had to stress this in capitals because so many people have come to me asking for sizing on these fake shoes and I can’t help them because fakes are terrible. They will fall apart, break, look nothing like the real thing and be a complete waste of money as well as a big insult to the real company.

So many might think that wearing fakes doesn’t matter, no one can tell the difference, but they can. There are many people out there (myself included) who can spot fake many things as we have had lots of experience. This includes jeans (I’m an expert in this area due to work), bags, shoes etc. It’s noticeable and you are wasting money. For those of you who might get lured into these types of websites, it’s easy to remember that any website with Louboutin in the URL (except for the official Louboutin website which is christianlouboutin.com) are fake. There are no other authentic retailers with the name in the URL. Also any website you see with loads of his shoes, in all different styles and sizes for cheap prices of $100 – $300 are most likely not going to be real either.

Don’t lose faith though because you can easily find authentic Louboutin shoes for discounted prices. The majority of my collection, in fact 8 out of the 11 pairs, are pairs that I never paid full price for. I either got them on sale, at an authentic outlet or on eBay after making sure they are 100% authentic and getting confirmation from the lovely ladies on The Purse Forum. You can also get your eBay finds checked in their authentication thread here, as eBay is absolutely heaving with fake shoes. It’s like looking for a gem in a haystack, I say gem because you can find some amazing deals there! The sales at Christmas, Thanksgiving and other times of the years on authentic retailers which I listed above are also amazing times to get your shoes up to half price! So if you don’t have enough to pay retail (many don’t) and are contemplating buying a fake pair as they are cheaper, please think about what I mentioned as you can get a real older pair for about the same price as a fake pair. It’s worth keeping that in mind!

There are a few online sites that you can get your Louboutins discounted as well! These include the outlet sites of some websites or pop up sale sites. You can see the ones I know to be authentic below:

The Outnet – This is Net-A-Porters sister site and sells old stock.

Yoox – Old stock from previous seasons.

Gilt Groupe – Flash sales site which sometimes has Louboutin sales.

Rue La La – Flash sales site which sometimes has Louboutin sales.

Beyond The Rack – Flash sales site which sometimes has Louboutin sales.

Hautelook – Flash sales site which sometimes has Louboutin sales.

So this is all of the advice I can offer to you at the moment and I really hope that you find it useful. I am by no means endorsed by Christian Louboutin, work for them or related to anyone who does, so all of these tips are purely from my personal experience and friends personal experiences with his shoes.

I started out some years ago not knowing anything at all and ventured into the unknown world of his shoes, got completely obsessed and ended up spending all of my money on them, which I now don’t think I should have done ha ha. But I thought it would be helpful to share my insights and knowledge with those of you looking for advice, I know so many of you come to Raindrops of Sapphire through Louboutin searches as I am on the first page of Google for sizing help and fit tips (which is great!). But as always, if you have any questions please just leave a comment below and I will reply to it as soon as I can. I’m usually pretty fast and will definitely reply within a few hours! Providing I’m not asleep!

Written by Lorna Burford

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