STR is back from the holidays, and after bags and watches, it is finally time for shoes.

I grew up during the Barbie boom, when pink convertibles and doll houses reigned supreme — but it was always the shoes that mattered most. I imagined that heels would be part of my future. Then came reality: my mother banned 120 mm pumps from the school run (which, in hindsight, was sensible). So I learned to live in flats, boots, and sneakers.

Today, I value comfort above all, yet pumps still occupy a corner of my wardrobe — and an even bigger corner of my heart. Which is why our new podcast, Pump Fiction, is dedicated to them. Over eight episodes, we will explore the stories of the most iconic shoes ever made — pairs that quite literally left a trace on earth.

And we begin, naturally, with Christian Louboutin’s red soles: that glossy flash of lacquer which transformed stilettos into symbols of survival.

Here are three things you probably didn't know about Christian Louboutin — unless you have been strutting in his heels since the 1990s:

Come for the nail polish anecdote, stay for the legend of a shoe that made walking away look like theatre.