Christian Louboutin on Planning the Rose Ball: "It's an Honor" Rachel KingMon, March 23, 2026 at 1:26 PM UTC 0 The Rose Ball is the height of the social season in Monaco, a sovereign citystate on the French Riviera synonymous with glamour and luxury. Also known as Le Bal de la Rose in French, the fête is black tieformal and comes with a new theme annually, which lightly dictates the dress code. It's not quite Met Gala "understand the assignment" critical, but it's more of a suggestion to have fun with it.
Christian Louboutin on Planning the Rose Ball: "It's an Honor"
Rachel KingMon, March 23, 2026 at 1:26 PM UTC
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The Rose Ball is the height of the social season in Monaco, a sovereign city-state on the French Riviera synonymous with glamour and luxury. Also known as Le Bal de la Rose in French, the fête is black tie-formal and comes with a new theme annually, which lightly dictates the dress code. It's not quite Met Gala "understand the assignment" critical, but it's more of a suggestion to have fun with it.
Yet on the evening before the 70th Rose Ball, Christian Louboutin, the French fashion designer and the gala's creative director for the past four years, was casual and comfortable, at least in his attire. Dressed in a denim shirt, light trousers, a burnt auburn baseball cap with white block lettering reading "CL," and sunglasses (it was getting close to the magic hour outside), Louboutin was onsite at Salle des Étoiles, the home of the Rose Ball since 1974.
A little more than 24 hours before the doors would open for red (or actually, white) carpet arrivals, the venue was deep into setup mode, with the entry hallway looking more like a corridor on an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars than a traditional photo call spot. But that's what the Rose Ball is all about—transporting its guests into a dream world—for one evening, whatever the theme might be, and this year it happened to be "Galaxy Rose Ball."
Instead of a red carpet, guests walk through this spaceship-like corridor.David Niviere/SBM
A look inside the ballroom at the Monte-Carlo Sporting Club before doors open.PLS Monaco Pool - Getty Images
Louboutin has served as creative director of the Rose Ball since 2022, when he was asked by Princess Caroline of Hanover to take over from Karl Lagerfeld following the former Chanel creative director and fashion designer's death in 2019. Louboutin did not hesitate. "If you want me to do it, I will do it with pleasure," he says he told the Princess. "She's always been very, very nice and naturally very supportive, so that's how we actually became friends."
This year's theme spawned from a dinner conversation, as most of the ball's themes do, Louboutin says. Princess Caroline had encountered Benoît Miniou, a designer and scientist who had been working on sending organic elements into space to study their behavior upon return. His previous projects include grapevines and a full case of Petrus wine. His next one, a rose, was the light bulb moment for Princess Caroline and Louboutin. Miniou's rose is expected to be launched into space later this year.
"She said, 'That's really something we have to consider,'" Louboutin recalls. "I said, well, it's pretty obvious—a rose in space, that's a galaxy and a rose in a galaxy." Princess Caroline then showed him images ARP 273, a particularly photogenic spiral of galaxies in the shape of a rose. "Suddenly it just felt inevitable," he says. "It was written in the stars."
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Louboutin with the Grimaldi family, as well as special guest, Princess Akiko of Japan.La Société des Bains de Mer
Planning for each year's ball begins in earnest three to four months before the event, though Louboutin describes the collaboration with Princess Caroline as something that never fully stops. "It's always a floating process. She'll send me something on WhatsApp, or I'll send her something. It's not rigid. It floats as a process throughout the entire year," he says. "Sometimes when one edition is finished, I'm already thinking about the next, or she may have something in mind."
The Grimaldi family's presence at the ball, he notes, is central to what makes this formal affair unlike any other. "Of course it changes the energy," Louboutin says, adding that the Rose Ball has gained a new depth in the last few years as the younger generation has grown into adulthood. "You have Princess Caroline and her brother's [Prince Albert]'s generation, but you also have all the children who are now old enough to speak, to lead, to motivate people. It's a real family affair."
Louboutin also takes great care in considering the Rose Ball's original patron, Princess Grace, in planning each iteration. "A lot of the things she did were done quietly, not for publicity," he says. "There is a real structure behind the foundation, a real amount of money going to charity, helping schools, education. The flashy part is just on the surface. Behind it is serious work."
Berlin-based stilt performers Dulce Compania performs with another dance troupe.David Niviere/SBM
That tension between spectacle and purpose is one Louboutin says he thinks about more as the world outside grows more unsettled. He wants first-time guests to feel transported, "drawn into a time capsule for a little while." But he is also conscious of a larger question that the event raises for him personally.
"Sometimes when you're doing things that are really just dedicated to pleasure, and underneath to help people, and when you see the whole world crawling down the way it's crawling now, sometimes I'm just thinking, 'Is that a foolish thing? To participate in something where you kind of just want to put smiles on faces?'" He pauses. "I feel that resistance to darkness is important. If you drown yourself in it, that's not going to help anyone. Keeping your optimism is important, because otherwise everyone has enough excuses to stop functioning."
Louboutin shares a laugh with Princess Charlene and Prince Albert after welcoming them to the Rose Ball.SC Pool - Corbis - Getty Images
Louboutin describes planning the Rose Ball as "an honor," acknowledging how different it is planning this kind of show versus a collection during Paris Fashion Week. "I keep on learning. I've seen a lot, but there is still so much to do and so much to see. Imagining and doing completely different kinds of shows," Louboutin says. "It's kind of an addiction, and I'm already thinking about the next one."
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Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: March 23, 2026 at 03:45PM on Source: RON MAG
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