“We have worked with Taylor for a while, since the 2010s, on music videos, different things, red carpets, et cetera,” Mr. Louboutin explains. “Then we worked together for her Reputation Tour, which was 2018. So it really felt natural to design pairs for the tour, encompassing all of the eras.”

This time around, the stakes were higher, and the designer felt it. “A lot more stress,” Louboutin says of how this tour differed from the last. “Her being on stage for two years all around the world, she needed to sparkle and stand out. So for each date, there were new fittings and shoes to surprise her fans.”

One of those surprises included, of course, shoes to go with an entirely new look and new music when Swift released her Tortured Poets Department album midway through the tour. The sketch for the white lace-up boots Louboutin created is included included in The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book, which goes on sale Friday, November 29 at Target, and shared exclusively here:

“Taylor launching a new album while on tour was such a big moment,” Louboutin says. “The Tortured Poets Department shoe is my favorite and she played it for the first time in Paris.”

In terms of creating the designs, it was a collaborative effort, Louboutin shares, between himself and team Swift. “Her stylist, Joseph [Cassell], and Taylor drew inspiration for her looks through the years,” he says. “So we were able to curate a selection based on both [existing forms] that we had and an entirely new design, all with a big shine.”

Louboutin himself drew inspiration from Swift’s costumes and from a different era of his own career: When he outfitted cabaret dancers. “The [Eras Tour] stage clothes were instrumental in the overall inspiration. It has been a pleasure for someone like me, who started designing shoes for cabaret dancers, to imagine pairs for her tour and thinking about the overall performance and how the shoes will come to life.”

The shoes made for Swift and her (many!) backup dancers had to be more than just the sparkletastic, red-soled beauties the audience could see: They also needed to have a very practical element to them to support the singer and her performers running, dancing, and shaking it off for so many hours straight. “Each pair is made to fully to allow for quick changes through the entirety of the show. As they are dancing for over three hours, comfort is also extremely important. So we incorporated [a] sturdy block heel and also flats,” Louboutin shares.

Like any Christian Louboutin shoe, the craftsmanship is exceptional. The Louboutin team shared their own behind-the-scenes photos of how Swift’s orange sparkly boots (seen in one my favorite performances of the night, Cruel Summer) were made, and the level of detail is amazing:

As for the secret behind how Louboutin made all those shoes unslippable? “Weather is unpredictable,” he says. “However, each pair is crafted with a signature red rubber sole, which makes it easy to dance. We typically incorporate this feature for musicians’ tours to withstand the performances night after night.”

“It was very emotional to accompany her in such a big moment in her career,” the designer says of his experience working with Swift on this tour. And even Mr. Louboutin can be considered a Swiftie, with his own favorite era: “I adored the Red era, when she was wearing her lyrics on a white T-shirt paired with the CL Moc loafers,” he shares. “It was cute! It creates such a fun college vibe.”