You may be familiar with the ongoing court case involving the shoe designer, Christian Louboutin, who claims that the designer Yves Saint Laurent stole his signature design by making and selling red-soled shoes. Louboutin believes he ought to be granted trademark protection for making shoes with a red heel. This is a heated battle and is big news in the fashion world. The color red might sound like a silly thing to fight about, but there is a lot of money at stake. Louboutin’s shoes cost between $400 and $6,000 dollars.

A central question is whether the color red can be trademarked.  As I have blogged about before, the color red has a rich and fascinating history. I see why Louboutin is steamed up about the issue, but he certainly did not invent red-heeled shoes.

A pair of men's leather shoes: c.1688-1695 The heels of these shoes were probably originally red.© Museum of London

Heels became popular during the 1500s to keep riders’ feet in the stirrups. As most women rode side-saddle, the heeled boots were mostly worn by men. In fact, up until relatively recently, men wore high heels more often than did women.

Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659 – 1743) portrait de Louis XIV

Shoe snobbishness did not begin with Louboutin, either. Diminutive French King Louis XIV wore red heels. He passed an edict saying that only those who were nobly born and in the royal favor were allowed the privilege of wearing shoes with red heels.

I remember being traumatized by Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Red Shoes, where a girl named Karen basically dances herself to death, unable to kick off the red shoes she coveted so much from her bloodied feet. It’s a pretty harsh morality tale, and the red shoes are a symbol of overreaching social climbing and vanity.

I think Louboutin is probably aware of the history of red shoes, and, like Andersen, knows their power. And no doubt, more than one modern woman who’s danced in towering Louboutin heels has felt poor Karen’s pain.