The Secret Behind Taylor Swift’s ‘Unslippable’ Christian Louboutins

Some styles are designed to endure. For Taylor Swift, endurance came in the form of red-bottomed Christian Louboutins, which served as her signature shoe for her history-making Eras Tour.

The trademark soles have been a familiar presence during 149 shows in 22 countries, through all of her eras and despite countless wardrobe changes. But as Christian Louboutin recently revealed in an interview with InStyle, there was an easter egg design detail that went undetectable to even the most eagle-eyed of Swifties.

“Weather is unpredictable,” he told the outlet in an interview published on November 27 2024. “However, each pair is crafted with a signature red rubber sole, which makes it easy to dance. We typically incorporate this feature for musicians’ tours to withstand the performances night after night.”

The unslippable custom Christian Louboutins proved to be everlasting in another way, staying comfortably underfoot during a dizzying number of wardrobe changes and many (many) dance routines and even the occasional rain sequence.

“Each pair is made to fully allow for quick changes through the entirety of the show,” the designer explained. “As they are dancing for over three hours, comfort is also extremely important. So we incorporated [a] sturdy block heel and also flats.”

With a fringe Robert Cavalli minidress and a custom crystal-covered guitar, Swift’s flat knee-high boots gave a stylish new meaning to her “Fearless” era. When the performance shifted to “Red,” she was ever-so-light on her feet in chunky loafers with spangly sequined “CL” on each toe. The logo detail was subtle yet significant, as she memorably paired it with a bold message T-shirt.

Louboutin has outfitted Swift since the 2010s, collaborating with her stylist Joseph Casell to curate the shoes for music videos, red carpets and the stage for her Reputation Tour. This time, the designer took extra, ahem, steps to create surprising new ways to “sparkle and stand out.”

One such surprise was shoes to go with an entirely new wardrobe and music for the Tortured Poets Department album, which Swift released midway through the tour. The sketch for the white lace-up boots that Louboutin created appears in The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book, which went on sale Friday, November 29.

“Taylor launching a new album while on tour was such a big moment,” Louboutin recalled. “The Tortured Poets Department shoe is my favorite and she played it for the first time in Paris.”

The designer also drew inspiration from another era of his career —before he was crafting those red-soled shoes, he outfitted cabaret dancers.

“It has been a pleasure for someone like me, who started designing shoes for cabaret dancers, to imagine pairs for her tour and thinking about the overall performance and how the shoes will come to life,” he said