When Paris-born Louboutin opened his first, bijou boutique on Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1991, one of his first customers was Princess Caroline of Monaco. Since then, fans of his designs have included Jennifer Lopez, Tina Turner, Beyoncé, Sarah Jessica Parker, actor Blake Lively and, since producing his first men’s footwear in 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2006, the designer launched his first collection of handbags, and in 2014 his first beauty range. Today, there are 150 Christian Louboutin shops worldwide.

Louboutin lived near an aquarium, frequently exploring it in the early 1970s. Then as now, it boasted an aquarium, and Louboutin spent hours mesmerised by its darting, iridescent, luminous fish. His 1987, surreal-looking Maquereau shoe made of metallic leather sprang from this experience. In the ’70s, the building housed the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens; today it’s occupied by the Cité Nationale de L’Histoire de L’Immigration.