Dashing Designer Uses His Powerhouse Texas Connections To Create Cowboy Boot Magic — Adam Lippes Finds Partlow

We have been besotted with dashing designer Adam Lippes’ ladylike designs since he first launched his label in 2019 when Houstonian Courtney Sarofim and her billionaire family helped open the doors to his talent which was hewn in the echelons of  Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta. Today, thanks to Dallas’ philanthropic powerhouse Cindy Rachofsky, there are now Italian crafted boots of a Western ilk in Lippes’ portfolio.

For it was Rachofsky who introduced sisters Kasey Lemkin and Lawren Sample of Partlow boot fame to Lippes.

“We share a really good friend Cindy Rachofsky. She’s like a godmother to me — the best of the best of the best,” Lippes says tells PaperCity during a meeting in his River Oaks District boutique prior to official celebration of Partlow x Lippes. “We (Rachofsky and Lemkin) had dinner in New York in the basement of Restoration Hardware and we started talking cowboy boots. And here we are.

“Eighteen months ago — it just developed from there.”

Sarofim would soon be arriving in the boutique as she and Lippes were hosting the midday fête with the bonus of having the sisters — Lemkin in from Dallas and stylist to the stars Sample in from Los Angeles — part of the Texas welcome committee.

The Partlow x Lippes boots reflect the New York-based designer’s appreciation of less being more, reducing a bit further the fluff that Partlow had already subtracted from its cowboy boot designs.

“Being born and raised in Mississippi, we loved the idea of a cowboy boot. But we just couldn’t find one that we felt was very chic, that we could wear with Adam’s collection,” Lemkin notes. “We set out to find the perfect cowboy boot that was understated and modern and we just wanted to do something different with the cowboy boot.

“We were finding a lot of yeehaw where we wanted to just strip down.”

The Partlow x Lippes boot has less stitching than the typical cowboy boot letting the quality of the leather and suede be the star power. The typical snub nose of the boot was redesigned into an elongated nose, which makes the look more ladylike.

“We just wanted something to wear from day to evening. I could wear it with the evening dress on the rack, or with suiting, with jeans,” Sample says. “You could wear it with everything. It’s a very versatile cowboy boot.”

The one bit of ornamentation that remains in this collection and is a signature of all Partlow boots — the subtle brass horse shoe wrapping just above the heel.

The collaborative collection comes in five colors —  ivory, black, brown and new to Partlow merlot and dove gray — knee high and mid-calf. These fashion boots are available only in the Partlow boutique in Dallas’ Preston Hollow, in Lippes’ boutiques and online. Considering the finest in quality of the skins, design and execution, the boots seem almost reasonably priced in the $1,395 to $1,495 range.