Most surveys aren’t worth opening the attachment for. But the following also happens to be supported by my own meticulous research. So here it is: the most sought-after shoe brand in 2008, as polled by the New York-based Luxury Institute no less, is Christian Louboutin.

This is probably quite significant for anyone interested in status patterns. Christian Louboutin is, in the grand scheme of things, a tiny brand. He has 20 boutiques worldwide. He doesn’t advertise or bombard celebrities with freebies. He charges £800 for a pair of strappy sandals. He didn’t get so much as a look-in on the original TV version of Sex and the City. Democratic style for the masses – or masstige – this is not.

He is witty, though. And willing to put in hours, face to face, with real live customers. According to a profile in Time magazine, he cancelled a flight back to Paris in order to spend a further two hours signing shoes at one personal appearance. When one of the adoring throng confessed that she was “just a housewife”, Louboutin scrawled “TO MY FAVORITE HOT HOUSEWIFE” across her soles. For the bride to be, he inscribed “HERE IS SOMETHING BLUE” in blue biro.

But perhaps the key to his current success (he’s overtaken St Manolo as aspirational shoe god, for heaven’s sake) is those red soles. Louboutin claims these happened serendipitously. “When the first prototype arrived, it had a big black sole. Dead!” He grabbed his assistant’s nail polish and began painting. “Immediately, the shoe came back to life.’’ He thought he would change the sole each season. “But red is more than a colour. It is a symbol of love, of blood, of passion. It’s like the handkerchief that an elegant woman dropped if she saw a man whom she was attracted to.”

It’s also highly visible, in a way no business school graduate would ever imagine. Every time a woman climbs a staircase, crosses her legs, click-clacks down the street, it flashes away, a symbol – never mind blood, passion and love – of a shoe that cost a fortune. When a model mooches down the catwalk in Louboutins, the audience identifies them immediately. No wonder he eschews obvious logos: that red sole is genius – a status symbol that purports not to be a status symbol.

We’ve been here before, a whole fashion cycle ago, with the non-status, status nylon handbag. And look what that did for Prada. Louboutin’s soles may be even more brilliant than nylon, because red leather wears out, and fast.

If you’re a committed status seeker, you don’t get them re-soled, because then they become black, unless you can find a cobbler that understands these things. Instead you dig deep. And stump up £800 for the next pair.

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