Coco Brandolini d’Adda’s first encounter with Christian Louboutin was not with the man himself but with a pair of boots from one of his earliest collections. A gift from a favorite uncle for her 16th birthday, the boots were made from intricately embossed cuir de cordoue. “I loved them. I kept them. I wore them so much,” says Brandolini d’Adda.
Descended from the glamorous Italian Agnelli tribe, Brandolini d’Adda has spent her career in fashion, working at Oscar de la Renta, Alberta Ferretti, and Dolce and Gabbana Alta Moda before launching Coco d’Adda—her own ready-to-wear collection made from colorful deadstock fabrics—four years ago. Available only at her Milanese atelier and a few by-appointment pop-ups, the collection has become a sort of get-it-if-you-can shorthand for a certain femme de goût type.
Brandolini d’Adda and Louboutin have run in overlapping well-shod circles for years. After traveling the world together as part of fashion’s international moveable feast—Milan, Paris, London, playing cards at Machu Picchu at dawn!—Brandolini d’Adda and Louboutin found they fit like a favorite pair of broken-in shoes. So, they started collaborating on them too.
The second edition of Brandolini d’Adda and Louboutin’s co-designed capsule of shoes launch today. Each of the 25 women’s styles is a marriage of Louboutin’s signature silhouettes and red bottoms with Coco d’Adda’s fabric archive. Metallic python printed leather mixes with painterly brocade on the Clara strappy sandal with a block heel. The Maria Angela python bootie is painted with delicate pink flowers and leaves blossoming on a vine.
Each design is reflective of their shared curiosity and commitment to letting the eye travel. “Christian will go see the artisan that makes this thing on top of a mountain in Bhutan. And I would do these also, happily,” says Brandolini d’Adda.
Louboutin recalls returning to Paris after a lavish five-day Indian wedding, committed to buying the kind of overt jewelry worn by men and women alike at such celebrations. Brandolini d’Adda found him trying on a Mughal necklace at a vintage store. “‘Is that for you?’” he remembers Brandolini d’Adda asking him. Then, “she looked at me, very strict, and said, ‘Think twice.’”
They keep each other in check. During the design process, Louboutin appreciated Brandolini d’Adda’s feminine sensibility—the shoes have heels that are thick and supportive enough to be worn all day—and her pursuit of pleasure. “She’s like, ‘Oh, look, there’s a nice piece of jewelry. What about transforming into a heel?’” he says. “Then I always have ‘think twice’ in mind. But in general, we don’t think twice. We go all the way.”
The Coco Brandolini d’Adda and Christian Louboutin collection will be available exclusively at the Christian Louboutin Mount Street store in London and by private appointment at Coco d’Adda
Jessica Iredale is a New York-based writer
