Consider the time-frame to be as finely balanced as a spike heel. It’s early morning in Paris. The Eurostar was on strike yesterday – I was late in from London, Christian Louboutin​ late home from Brussels – and taxis are on strike today. The venue: his glorious rooftop apartment, which is packed with treasures that suggest a magpie traveller. The plan: to grab this sliver of time as narrow as one of his 170-millimetre heels, in which to discuss the shoe business – in particular, his shoe business.

Slender of frame, wide of smile and possessor of elegant feet – this noted because today, chez lui, he is not wearing any shoes – the 52-year-old has built his reputation on an unerring belief in the beauty and power of the high heel. He is probably the world’s most famous shoe designer. There are others, but Manolo Blahnik​ has a smaller business and Jimmy Choo​, which long ago ceased to be the work of the man himself, a far lower penetration on social media.