Christian Louboutin’s five shades of nude

For a long time we’ve been describing shoes (and other clothing items) as ‘nude’, without thinking twice about what exactly ‘nude’ means, when for plenty of luxury consumers, so-called ‘nude’ items provide certain contrast to their own nude skin tone. 

Now Christian Louboutin has stepped in with a range of new nude shoes, hitting select stores this month, designed to more fully match a range of human skin colors. Five classic Louboutin styles (including the celebrity red carpet favorite, the Pigalle model) have been reimagined in five new nude shades from a light blush to a dark chestnut color. 

There’s also an app, called Louboutin Shades and available on the iTunes app store, which asks you to take a photo of your foot and matches your skin tone to the appropriate ‘nude’ shoe accordingly.

In fact it’s a growing trend. Italian lingerie label Cosabella recently launched the Trenta Skin Tone collection of underwear, which is designed to match a whole range of different skin colors and outfits and is available in a low-rise thong and a low-rise hotpant style.

American brand Wacoal also unveiled a line of ‘invisible’ shapewear earlier this year in a range of flesh tones. The t-shirt bra, high-cut brief panty, brief panty, and bikini panty all come in four different shades designed to match your skin tone: white swan, naturally nude, praline, and coffee bean. We’re glad to see that more brands are realizing that neither one size nor one color fits all.