“Louboutin will hire a salesperson on the basis of personality as much as on that of retail experience. ‘I’m kind of like, deformed,’ he said. ‘I buy the smallest thing, like a stamp, and I’m thinking, This person would be good for the shop.’ Louboutin poached a hostess from an Air France lounge; another time, he hired the bellboy who was assigned to look after him at a hotel in Dubai. Female salespeople offer reassurance; the role of the male salesperson is ‘the ideal flirt’…One day at [Louboutin’s] offices, he wanted to demonstrate the way that a pair of his shoes can extend the line of the leg. He summoned one of his employees and had her step on top of a concrete bench. Louboutin then instructed her to hike up her skirt. ‘It’s all a matter of this going up to here,’ he said tracing a line from foot to hip, up the length of her stocking. ‘I haven’t yet met a woman who told me, ‘I wish I had shorter legs.’”
