Down in Dallas, Prabal Gurung Celebrated His Miron Crosby Cowboy Boot Collaboration With Some Famous Texans
Donning sashes splashed with the words “WHO GETS TO BE AMERICAN?”, Prabal Gurung’s troupe of models on his 10th anniversary Spring 2020 runway show made a resounding statement that, as Vogue’s Nicole Phelps explained, “made his politics increasingly clear.” His point of view was also made clear via his choice of footwear—Gurung slipped Americana cowboy boots, designed in collaboration with Miron Crosby, on his models.
The Texas boot-maker, founded by sisters Sarah Means and Lizzie Means Duplantis in 2017, is known for its fanciful take on the classic Southern shoe style, and for Gurung, the choice to co-design a collection of eight boot styles with an American-made, female-founded company was a conscious decision.
“We want to celebrate what new Americana looks like because I do believe that most Americans want to see a colorful America and not just a portrait of a handful of people,” he told Vogue as the collaboration was celebrated on the Great Lawn of Dallas’s revered Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. “What that meant was paying respect to these heritage items like blue jeans, T-shirts, and boots, and it was at my friend’s Barbara [Bush]’s wedding where she told me I should wear these boots, and when I did some research, I discovered they were American-made and led by two women, which I find so incredible. I love anyone who celebrates their heritage and background—and they also promised me a good party!”
The resulting designs are whimsical, playful, and, per Gurung himself, campy. “Oh yes, these cowboy boots are always camp,” Gurung added. “Camp, to me, is the audacity and the courage to authentically be yourself, and cowboy boots, whether you wear them with a gown or jeans, you are saying, ‘This is who I am,’ and there’s nothing more camp than that.”
Make no mistake, while these boots can stand up to any rancher’s rough-and-tumble lifestyle, Miron Crosby’s painstaking handiwork, completed at the label’s 160-year-old Rios de Mercedes workshop in south Texas by a tight-knit team of about 40 employees, suggests a more leisurely lifestyle, where fringe and metallics are always on order.
“I have known these girls since we were in middle school, and I got to know Prabal 15 years ago,” Barbara Bush explained, sporting a pair of obsidian-colored crocodile-and-python boots with her mother, former first lady Laura Bush, in tow. “I couldn’t be more excited that these two companies that I respect so much are getting to work together in a place that I love.” Joining her were Tina Craig, Nancy Rogers, Nasiba Adilova, and legendary rodeo announcer Pam Minick included; all sported one of their many, many pairs of Miron Crosby boots. “Texas loves boots, but especially ones that aren’t too cowboy,” Dallas native Margretta Wilkert told Vogue, alongside her longtime pal Amy Rush, who collectively own 24 pairs from Miron Crosby. “We want to wear these when we’re out on the town, not the ranch.”
Like the footwear, the celebration came chock-full of many unabashedly Texas elements. The house cocktail, The Ranch Water—comprised of Casamigos tequila, extra fizzy Topo Chico sparkling water, and lime wedges—could be found in just about every guest’s hand. Under rows of twinkling lights, bedazzled rodeo queens mixed seamlessly with mega art collectors like Cindy and Howard Rachofsky and local business owners like jewelry designer Madison Isner and Jane Scott Hodges of Leontine Linens.
Presiding over it all were the Means sisters, who admitted this 350-person (and growing) spectacle was much more than they had expected. “We can’t get over tonight,” Sarah Means told Vogue as the evening wrapped up. “Lizzie and I knew we had to get Prabal to Dallas to properly celebrate the collection we created together. This is such an important step for our young brand, and I don’t think there’s any place that would fête him as properly, or as thoroughly, as Texas. We also don’t know any rodeo queens in New York.”
Photo: Cooper Neill / Stringer1/9Prabal Gurung with some cowgirls
Photo: Cooper Neill / Stringer2/9Laura Bush, Prabal Gurung, and Barbara Bush
