Checking in With the Sisters Behind Dallas’ Chicest Cowboy Boots

From the moment it launched in 2017, the name to know for chic western boots has been Miron Crosby, the fashion-thinking bespoke boot purveyor imagined by sisters Lizzie Means Duplantis and Sarah Means. They’re the fifth generation to grow up on their family ranch in Valentine, Texas, near Marfa. After graduating from Texas Christian University, both honed their fashion chops working in New York City — but now back in Texas, they’re putting the cowboy boot squarely on the fashion map.

A key to their success is that Miron Crosby boots can be ordered ready-to-wear or one of a kind, with options for custom pulls, leathers, stitching, even monograms. The magic, though, is in the craftsmanship: Each pair of boots is hand-lasted at the Rios of Mercedes factory in Mercedes, Texas — a 160-year-old manufacturer owned by Duplantis and Means’ cousins.
Consider it the Louboutin of the west: At Rios of Mercedes, the art of bootmaking is a careful skill passed down through generations of artisans. While fashion is, of course, at the forefront of the Miron Crosby mission (Gigi Hadid sported a pair in Vogue), it’s the preservation of the Rios of Mercedes factory and the handmade boots produced there that truly drive Duplantis and Means.

On a recent afternoon, I met the sisters for lunch at Park House, the private club just steps away from their dove’s nest of a studio in Highland Park Village in Dallas. They both sported ankle-skimming Shorty-style boots (Duplantis in a pink pair, and Means in a splatter-painted boot from Miron Crosby’s recent Rialto Jean Project collaboration), paired with feminine dayware that have all at once become their signature — and redefined what it means to dress Texas chic.

In the beginning — boot camp.
LMD: We saw a huge hole in the market for an authentic, more fashion-forward boot. You can throw them on when you go through carpool or go out on a date night.
SM: We wanted to make sure people had a lot of opportunity to express themselves in their customization, by picking leathers and fabrications and doing their own thing.

What’s in store.
LMD: One thing we’re becoming known for — for better or for worse — is that people love to come up [to the boutique] and have a ranch water and pick out their boots. We’ve turned into a local watering hole.

Bootleggers.
LMD: In the winter, I lived in a pair of cropped leather pants that I wore with the Shorties and oversized sweaters or a silk blouse and a blazer. In the summer, I wear boots with dresses in lace or eyelet, or with a flutter sleeve. It’s fun to wear dresses with one of our silver rock ’n’ roll-ish booties. That juxtaposition makes it a little more editorial and a downtown kind of cool.
SM: I do a lot of dresses, a lot of midi skirts, with a crop top or something tucked in. Don’t worry about the hemline. Today I’m wearing a long skirt with a Shorty boot, but I think it would be super great with a tall-shaft boot, too.
LMD: The tall boots are really sexy with a skinny pant or something really short — it’s smokin’.

It’s not our first rodeo.
SM: I love our Sita boot with a skinny black jean, a great top, and a blazer.
LMD: We launched a boot that says “Yee Haw” on it — the Dana boot — and I think that is so fun for rodeo. For TCU games, we’ve had people do purple with white stars.
SM: This season, we’ve been working with a lot of snake — python in particular. We have a boot called the Kate that’s a rodeo favorite. We did snake piping, which is such a luxe touch.

It’s in the genes.
SM: The women in our family are super-stylish, especially our paternal grandmother, Grammie, who was famous for wearing Ferragamo to cattle works.

When inspiration sparks.
LMD: In our inaugural collection, we were influenced by West Texas and where we came from — the ranch and the flora and fauna and the stars. We spent a lot of time in Santa Fe growing up — we have two ranches in New Mexico — so artisanal Native American handiwork was important.
SM: Our fall collection is very heavy floral, very heavy in exotics. Texture is huge, woven two-tone exotics, metallic python, and signature hand-tied tassels.

Talismans.
LMD: My husband, Seth, gifted me a vintage sapphire ring when our first child was born, and the sentimentality behind the gesture makes it my favorite possession. Recently I’ve been wearing a stack of Roxanne Assoulin bracelets personalized with my kids’ names, along with a fourth that reads “BABY” in yellow. We are expecting our fourth child and don’t know the gender.
SM: I wear a small vintage Native American turquoise cuff next to my grandmother’s watch every day. It’s Navajo, circa 1930. Lizzie brought me a piece of cording that was dipped in the Jordan River after a recent trip to Israel, and I’m never
without it tied around my wrist. For earrings, anything and everything Mignonne Gavigan.