Why Christian Louboutin???s nude shoe line is revolutionary for mixed race women like me
This week, the shoe legend that isChristian Louboutin announced that he isexpanding hisnude collection, which originally launched in 2013, to include the Solasofia pointedballet flats.
News of a nude shoe line shouldn"t be controversial - this is the shoe choice of the Duchess of Cambridge, after all - but astheshoes are available in a spectrum of creams, coffees and caramel shades, for women of colour this launch is revolutionary.
Because for women like me who haveskin darker than sand, ivory and beige, finding an actual nude heel, or a nude anything for that matter, hasbeen frustratinglydifficult.
Being mixed-race, my medium brown skin has never matched up to the typical ???nude??? shades we???re used to seeing everywhere.From shoes to underwear and lipsticks, ???nude??? has alwaysessentially meant beige or cream, and eliminated my skin tone and millions of others completely.Even a Google search of the word defines it as a ???pinkish-beige colour.???
"Nude is not a colour, it"s a concept," designer Christian Louboutin told The Telegraph when asked why he decided to expand his nude collection.And he"s right.If"nude" issupposedto look natural and fit your complexion perfectly, with underwear merging to look flawless under sheer tops, and shoes which should ???disappear like magic and become a fluid extension of the legs??? as Louboutin says his new Solasofia pumps do, then why are so many skin tones traditionally left out?
Back in University whilst getting ready for a night out,one friend spotted me putting on my ???nude??? shapewear shorts (the first of many nude buys I was convinced would suit me.)My friend, who has perfectly porcelain skin, mentioned that wearing white shorts under my navy dress wasn???t a good idea.She was right, it wasn???t, but they were in fact ???nude??? as stated on the M&S website I bought them from, they just weren???t my nude.
Instead they looked like ridiculous cycling shorts against my brown legs, and so the debate ended with said friend writing a lovely ???review??? of the shorts on the site.I like to think she prompted M&S to change the name of the shade to what it is now known as; Almond.
Other brands have also realised that the term "nude" is misleading.Aquick search online shows that many other brands including Wonderbra, Undiz andNext,are now calling their previous "nude" shades names like "skin" and "neutral,"but whilstNext now offers"chocolate" and "mocha" darker shades of shapewear, most of the other brands remain woefully white.
On a shopping trip last year I scoured Bravissimo for a simple nude t-shirt bra, and after ages looking I asked a fitter for help finding one ??? my mother had already found and paid for a bra that matched her ivory skin perfectly during all of this.The Bravissimo sales assistantreturned with a nude (read: beige) bra for me, and being the consumer that I am, I bought it, convincing myself that it would work when my tan faded, that it was the closest I???d ever been to matching my skin tone and that it was better than the black ones I had.My annoyed sister shunned it opting for a turquoise lace set.
Later we???d realise that her bright option was the more flattering one when I took off my jumper at my desk and had two white triangles on my chest.Someone even asked if I had a bikini on underneath.I never wore the ??34bra, or the white t-shirt, again.
A similar feeling of frustration at the limitation of "nude" on offer is what promotedAde Hassan to launchNubian Skin, a lingerie line for women of colour.It features underwearand tights, all in shades carefully matched to popular foundation names for darker skin, like MAC NW45and Bobbi Brown Chestnut.
???The brand was essentially born out of my own frustration of not being able to find what I wanted in shops.I???d ask for a nude bra, only to be offered beige or told that black would do,???Ade told The Telegraph.???It was incredibly frustrating - eventually I figured I might as well create it.???Nubian Skin launched in 2014 and is now stocked onASOS.
???We could never have imagined the reaction to the brand, it???s been truly overwhelming!???Ade, 30, says of the brand"s success.???It???s great to see so many women feeling empowered by a product that???s been specifically tailored to them.???
Considering there are over 4.5 million non-white women in the UK alone, it"s about time the fashion industry called time on the so-called universal "nude".Here"s hoping the message behind Louboutin"s designer shoes filters down to the high street soon, too.After all it would be nice to get a pair of flesh-coloured tights to go with those shoes - and your bespoke skin tone.