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Christian Louboutin’s name conjures up images of sky-high stilettos with red soles. But few know the multi-faceted man behind the Christian Louboutin brand.

On the heels of selling a 24 percent stake in his namesake label to Italy’s Agnelli family, valuing the business at $2.7 billion, Louboutin spoke with Rozan Ahmed at BoF VOICES 2021 about how his identity and upbringing have shaped how he approaches his business. A major factor in understanding his identity was the discovery later in life that Louboutin, who was raised in Paris, was actually the child of his mother and her Egyptian lover.

“To belong to different cultures, to different places makes you understand from the very beginning that the world has a lot of different points of view,” Louboutin said. “When you have different ethnicities, different cultures you’re not divided, you’re multiplied.”

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