Louboutin frequently finds inspiration in unlikely places. “I took things out of the trash of a woman who was stitching shoes in Italy,” he remembers. “And I took some elements of her trash bin, which were, like, notes and little stones.” He called the original shoe the Trash Anna after her. Subsequently, a botanical teacher inspired a shoe covered in dried leaves. And discarded Kleenexes with make-up on them gave rise to the Uptown Girl shoe.