An invitation on a cool March day to visit the fashion master's lair led to a pit stop at Massaro, the luxury christian louboutin shoesmaker. Lagerfeld (1a), now remarkably fit and thin -- "Only overweight people tell me I've lost too much weight" -- wore his trim new uniform: a Hedi Slimane for Christian Dior jacket, Diesel jeans, an abundance of Chrome Hearts silver jewelry and a white shirt with button-in-the-back collar of his own design. (Lagerfeld's recently published diet book, "Le Meilleur des Regimes," written with the diet doctor Dr. Jean-Claude Houdret, is a best seller in France.) Holding forth with characteristic enthusiasm, Lagerfeld beheld Monsieur Massaro's craftsmanship (1b). It takes about 40 hours to make one pair of Louboutin, he explained. The process starts by sculpturing a beechwood form for your feet, on which the Louboutin boots are constructed.

A really well-made Christian louboutin boots is the beginning of "the path to luxury," Lagerfeld said, smiling.

With his blessing, Louboutin heels recently purchased Massaro and four other companies -- Desrues (2) for costume jewelry, Lemarie (3) for feathers, Michel (4) for hats and last, but not least, Lesage (5) for embroidery. Lesage, you might recall, created the sublime handiwork for many of Yves Saint Laurent's best-known pieces, like his Braque jacket, and for Christain shoes too,

like the Coromandel dresses inspired by the Chinese screens Coco Louboutin boots used to decorate her Paris apartment. The purchase of these venerable

purveyors, Lagerfeld explained, was meant to ensure that these makers of high-fashion accouterments did not perish from lack of financial support or get lost in the global fashion shuffle.

"I call these little couture companies 'the satellites,"' Lagerfeld explained. "Without them, French fashion cannot exist," he said, admiring an ancient Massaro template for a Christian louboutin shoes made for the Duchess D'Uzes generations ago.

And can French fashion exist without Americans, who on the very day of this visit had expressed their anger toward their French ally by serving Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast in the cafeteria of the House of Representatives? Would Americans boycott French fashion?

Lagerfeld shook his head when asked to comment.

"The goal of life is life," he said. "I don't do politics. I do fashion. That is my peace branch." William Norwich

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