Shoes in News: Christian Louboutin & Jimmy Choo

Shoes are headliners today in almost any fashion magazine or paper. While it has been important to know what shoes were matched with which dress, over the past few weeks, if you have been following CNN or The Independent (in other words the US and the UK fashion markets) it has become a little more shoe-centric than, say, a few months ago.

It all started with the Louboutin story.

A Fight over the Color, not Logo

A Louboutin Pump

If you dont know about the famous shoe brand on which Jennifer Lopez sang her famous ‘Louboutins‘ song from the album ‘Love?‘ - ‘Im throwing on my Louboutins!‘, now is the time to read up. However, unfortunately for us, the video never got filmed – Christian Louboutin had stated that he was ‘flattered’ that JLo had sung a song with his shoe line in it, and had thought up amazing creations for the video, but – sigh – that never happened.

So, Louboutin’s are shoes, made by Christian Louboutin. Just like Manolo Blahnik‘s are. He started making shoes with the now-famous red soles. And every celebrity wears one at least once a month. They are just so easy to identify!Also, he hardly ever makes low-heels. The shoes are designer, high heels for evening affairs. A pair typically costs hundreds of dollars and have been seen on innumerable starry events, including on Carrie, on Sex and the City (yes, that is a qualifier).

YSL's 'red-all-over' Shoes

And then – YSL happened. They made a shoe range that was ‘red all over’, and raised red flags all over Louboutin’s workshops. So, Louboutin argues that they (Louboutin) have the patented red out-sole for all their shoes, and anyone making shoes with red out-soles infringes their right. The red out-sole is of the colour ‘Chinese red’, but they argue that any similar shade of red can be confused by consumers.

The million-dollar suit for “trademark infringement, unfair competition and false designation of origin” was filed in April 2011.

This is now a rather interesting case – can colour be trademarked?

Tiffany - Trademark Blue

Tiffany has now jumped into the game, and supported Louboutin. Why? Well, because Tiffany has trademarked their distinct ‘robin-egg blue’ and if Louboutin loses the case, (as they might, with YSL’s logic), Tiffany may stand to lose some day in the future!

So much for a simple shoe. Here, we have a legal battle between some of the biggest name sin high fashion over the color of the sole of a shoe!!

This will surely set the precedent for legal cases in years to come.

aad

aswdwa

podf

Jimmy Choo

On other Shoe-related BIG news, Jimmy Choo will be seeing some changes! After 15 long years heading the range, Tamara Mellonis resigning from Jimmy Choo. The other high-fashion foot accessory will now see new leadership and who knows? A new direction?

Tamara Mellon with her Choo's

I will let this brilliant article speak for me on The Independent.

 

Note: Links trackback to The Independent, The Economist and Forbes for their brilliant articles on these subjects; apart from Wikipedia