“I found him very interesting, very kind, and very, very humble, and above all, very interesting: The way he is, the way he dresses, the way he thinks.”

That’s Christian Louboutin talking about Jaden Smith, whom he tapped to become his first men’s creative director — roughly 15 years after he first extended his red-soled universe into men’s.

The American rapper and actor is moving to Paris to take up the role and is to present his first designs in January during men’s fashion week in the French capital. He is to oversee the creation of four collections a year across shoes, leather goods and accessories, along with developing campaigns, events and immersive experiences.

“This is the one of the biggest honors of my life, and I feel a lot of pressure to be able to live up to everything that Christian has done for the house, and also stepping into such a serious role,” Smith told WWD over Teams from Los Angeles. “When he reached out to me, I was just blown away, because of how similar we are and how much we like to do things in a similar manner.

“I can’t wait to show the world what we’ve been working on,” he added. “I think that the universe of Christian Louboutin men’s has so much potential.”

In a separate interview at his new Paris offices a stone’s throw from the Louvre, Louboutin said the appointment will allow him to focus more on his fast-growing women’s business – and leverage the creative and communication prowess of Smith to rev up the men’s category, which accounts for 24 percent of the business, but has recently been logging single-digit declines.

What might seem like a sudden handover has actually been percolating inside Louboutin’s head for several years.

On one side, Louboutin realized he was becoming overstretched given his hands-on approach to design, prototype development and manufacturing, spending many days each month tinkering at his Italian factories. On the other loomed Smith, whom he first met in 2019, realizing with each subsequent encounter how much the American creative reminded him of his younger self – not to mention their shared love of color, fun, and joyful self-expression.

“Dressing for him is an adventure,” he said of Smith. “It’s a form of communication. It’s thoughtful, but it’s playful. There are very few people that I find as surprising, the way he puts things together.”

In fact, Louboutin said he did not launch any formal search for a men’s creative director, settling on Smith as the organic result of his ruminations.

“He arrived before the idea of ​​a creative director,” the shoe guru related. “It’s not because I needed the creative director, it’s because of him, in fact. And so it happened like that.

“The day I said to myself, ‘He’d be a great person to work with’ was the day I realized I had been studying him without realizing it. I saw him interacting with people…. He’s very well-mannered, super respectful, and curious. And those, for me, are values or qualities that are important.”

Smith, 27, said he and Louboutin, 62, share a passion for ancient architecture, a deep affinity for music, and a love of dancing.

(In fact, among Louboutin’s first steps into men’s was creating shoes for Mika so the Lebanese pop star could comfortably dance while performing.)

As for fashion, “we both have our own unique style of dressing that is very particular to us,” Smith said, also describing similar creative methods. “We have a very similar workflow where we go into the office, and then maybe, if there’s a dinner party or something, we go there, and we continue the same conversation that we were having in the office with the same people, and we are just constantly in this bubble of creativity.”

During the interview, Smith discussed his passion for footwear, reflected in his large archive of shoes that he doesn’t actually wear, but keeps for reference.

“Just so that I can look at the materials, different lasts, different cuts, different internal shaping, different foot beds, different insoles, laces, shoe boxes,” he said. “Shoes are definitely a passion of mine.”

Co-founder of MSFTSrep — a streetwear label he launched with sister Willow Smith and friends in 2012 — Smith has also frequently collaborated with New Balance and acted as its ambassador.

He disclosed plans to launch a new version of the brand called MSFTSRep Infinity – hinged on retrospective elements, “art and movement” – that will allow him to devote himself to the Louboutin project.

Asked if he picks the shoes first or last when he gets dressed, Smith replied: “First I go with the emotion of how I’m feeling on that day… Once I gauge whether it’s all-black day or a colorful day, I start trying on the shoes.

“If I have new shoes, then I’ll put them on first. If I don’t, then I’ll just go based on how I’m feeling in a top-down kind of way.”

Smith said Louboutins first came on to his radar when he was extremely young thanks to famous and stylish parents: actors Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith.

“I would be in my mom’s closet, hanging out with her as she got ready for an event and she had a row of shoes with red bottoms. I became bewildered by the shoes at a very young age,” he related. “And then I realized that my dad also had shoes with red bottoms. And then my sister got older and started wearing them. And the first girlfriend that I ever had was like, ‘I need you to buy me some red bottoms.’ So it was something that was a part of my life forever since I was extremely, extremely young. And then I got my first pair around the time I started doing premieres for the first time.”

Louboutin said he would continue to oversee the men’s category, while letting Smith take the lead on design, image making and social media. “Because of his generation… there is a kind of mentality that is very different.”

And a different reach: Smith counts 19.1 million followers on Instagram.

“When I design shoes, I don’t think about a campaign at all,” Louboutin related. “I think about the colors, the materials, but I don’t think about the narrative…. (Jaden) is going to show the brand’s vision in a much more visible way.”

The designer also lauded Smith’s “richer universe that goes beyond the fashion perimeter” given that his creative tentacles stretch into music, photography, film and activism.

“He’s someone who’s very curious, who’s very panoramic, who does a lot of things, who’s interested and who connects all the things he does,” Louboutin said. “One of the first questions he had was about our sustainability efforts, because it’s important to him. And that is very, very, very good because we have started to do a lot of important work around sustainability.”

But mostly Louboutin marveled at their similarities. “He has the same enthusiasm that I have,” he said, also describing a similar appreciation for objects and an incredible attention to detail, likely sharpened over years of collaboration with New Balance, and his other creative pursuits. “We have very different backgrounds, but we have a very similar mentality.

“He has a way of seeing things, of digesting things, of transforming that really connects with my way of functioning.”

The star of “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “The Karate Kid” – and the singer of such songs as “Icon” and “Still in Love” – Smith said fashion has long been an attraction.

“I feel like fashion is just one of the most artistically expressive communities of people in the world, and that’s what brought me to fashion, because of my wanting to feel accepted in an artistic way and to be able to express myself creatively without feeling judged by everybody else in the community,” he said.

Smith arrives amid healthy business for the privately held company, with double-digit growth at present fueled largely by innovation in women’s footwear, including its “everlasting sole,” more low-heel options, substantial comfort enhancements, and price increases limited to cost of goods, according to Alexis Mourot, chief executive officer of Louboutin.

Emblematic of its momentum is its bestselling Miss Z pump, which features a an expanded toe box and a padded insole.

“In women’s shoes, we are gaining market share,” Mourot said in an interview, noting that 70 percent of its business today is with heels below 10 centimeters, whereas two years ago it was above 10 centimeters.

The executive attributed softness in its men’s shoes to market conditions, but said Smith’s arrival should ignite the business.

“I think we can double the (men’s) business in the next couple of years,” said Mourot, citing opportunities in both retail and wholesale channels. At present, men’s products are sold in about 125 points of sale globally.

Today, Louboutin operates dedicated men’s stores in Paris and New York “and we look to have more in the future,” Mourot said.

Sneakers represent about half of Louboutin’s men’s offering, and the other half is made with leather soles. The Louis and Chambellis lines are among bestsellers, the executive noted.

An “avant-premiere capsule” by Smith will be available in January at select boutiques worldwide and on Christianlouboutin.com, with his debut fall-winter 2026 collection will hit stores next May.