BACKSTAGE AT THE MOULIN ROUGE: INSIDE THE LUXURY PARIS ATELIER CREATING ELABORATE SHOES FOR CAN-CAN DANCERS AND KYLIE MINOGUE

What do Kylie Minogue and the can-can girls at the Moulin Rouge have in common? They all get their dancing shoes from Maison Clairvoy, the Parisian bootmaker that has cornered the market for top end, made-to-measure footwear for screen and stage.

Founded in 1945, the Maison Clairvoy still operates from the shop where it all began - a small building at 17 Rue Fontaine, just 650ft from the Moulin Rouge itself.

Despite its theatrical clientele, the atelier began life as a simple shoe shop, with founder Edouard Adabachian creating bespoke footwear on demand for private clients.

According to the 35-year-old, the job of creating the shoes is a delicate one and the atelier employs five expert cobblers to create them. 'There are about 250 steps in the production of each shoe,' he explains. 'And a pair can involve anything between 20 and 60 hours of work.'

The Moulin Rouge takeover has ensured the company's future by guaranteeing a steady flow of orders, Maistriaux adds. As a result, some of their top-selling styles are the calf-length, blue and red mini-boots in which the can-can is  performed.

Thanks to Clairvoy's attention to detail, dancers can thump the stage floor repeatedly in confidence: the heels are specially designed to spread and absorb the shocks.

'Stage shoes have to be extremely high-quality, both from a technical and an aesthetic point of view,' says Maistriaux. The laces on the can-can boots are only there to enhance leg length: a zip on the outside of the boot actually does the job of keeping the dancers' ankles fully supported.

But while Maison Clairvoy still supplies shoes to the Moulin Rouge, it regularly makes shoes to order for film-makers as well. Recent examples have included the high heels that featured in French-Belgian production Guillaume et les garçons à table, or, as it's known in English, Me, myself and Mum,  and the Roman-era footwear sported by Gallic cartoon heroes Asterix and Obelix.

Jean Dujardin, the Oscar-nominated star of silent film, The Artist, is another client and slipped into a pair of spurred Clairvoy boots for the cinema adaptation of another cartoon strip, Lucky Luke. 

'We modified the interior of the boot to make it easier for the actor to appear bow-legged like Luke,' reveals Maistriaux. 

Kylie Minogue turned to the company for her 2006 and 2008 tours, with the diminutive pop star requesting shoes with four-inch heels she could dance in and walk down stairs without looking at the steps.

But if you're planning to emulate Kylie's style, you could be in for an expensive surprise. A bespoke pair of high heels costs between £1,230 and £1,650 while men's made-to-measure shoes go for around £2,880.

It is a price worth paying, Maistriaux says, for a little piece of Parisian history. 'They are comfortable, they are beautiful and there is something timeless about them.'