Prabal Gurung Takes Over Dallas’ Mansion With Iconic Bootmaker

It is a mere three hours before show time and fashion designer Prabal Gurung is barefoot and casual in his suite at The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. He is in town for what will surely go down as the event of the year: A runway show and party celebrating his Spring 2020 and 10th Anniversary collection, which was just shown in New York a week prior, with Miron Crosby providing the footwear.

We sit down for a brief chat, and I ask him the same question that everyone in Dallas has been asking since receiving their invitations to the western-themed bash, hosted by Barbara Bush, Tina Craig, Nasiba Adilova, Nancy Rogers and Miron Crosby’s darling founders Lizze Means Duplantis and Sarah Means.

What should we wear?

“Something fabulous, something crazy. Something that let’s me know who you are,” Gurung says. “The rule of fashion is there are no rules anymore. You can wear whatever you want: If you want to come in a ball gown and boots, that’s perfectly fine if that suits your fancy. Just be yourself.”

His response would be answered in spades later that night as a flood of attendees arrived to the Great Lawn at the Mansion wearing a kaleidoscope of hues and, of course, cowboy boots — most of which were Miron Crosby, naturally.

When asked to put a quintessential Texas spin on a New York Fashion Week moment, our hostesses looked no further than Missy Peck for help. (Peck recently launched her own event business and is famous in many a social circle for putting on the most memorable parties, but this counted as Peck’s first big to-do under her new official biz.)

Peck positively transformed the Great Lawn at the Mansion, turning it into a fashion-forward rodeo, with a canopy of strung lights and florals from Avant Garden by Todd Fiscus that matched our famous Texas sunsets.

Texas-style Americana has certainly never looked this chic. As models in Gurung’s Spring 2020 collection made it down the runway (each look completed with a pair of Miron Crosby boots) a team of Rodeo Queens on horseback rode in with custom flags, flanking the catwalk. Pam Minick, champion calf roper and a member of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame emceed the event, adding to the Texas flare.

“We’re slicing the part of the show that pertained to our collaboration, specifically, which is all about Americana and celebrating the west,” Duplantis told me of what to expect. “We’re embracing the west tonight.”

And, as in any event hosted by the Means sisters, things kicked off with a shot of tequila and a glass raised to the collision of friendship and craftsmanship that made the whole partnership between the two brands possible in the first place.

The collaboration between Gurung and Miron Crosby was a perfect example of serendipity, I’m told. It all started in April, with a rather presidential wedding.

“One of my best friends, Barbara Bush, was getting married and the whole theme was cowboy,” Gurung tells PaperCity. “So I was looking around for boots to wear to Crawford, Texas, where the wedding was. I was looking online and I couldn’t find anything — and then I found Miron Crosby.

“When I looked into what they stand for and what they do — a woman led business, and the artisans that they work with, the kind of craftsmanship, and made in America — it’s very close to my ethos. Everything seemed to be aligned.”

And just like that, Duplantis and Means were putting a new spin on their beloved, custom-made boots for Gurung’s Spring 2020 runway show.

“They were willing to explore the traditional ideas of boots and change the colors, change the textures,” says Gurung of the boots that were paired with his colorful, wildly patterned pieces, which were all a testament to a new, more feminine spin on Americana.

PC Seen: Former First Lady Laura Bush, who sung Gurung’s praises, having met him years ago when he was working for Bill Blass; plus Brian Bolke and Faisal Halum, Jessica Nowitzki, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, Kelli Ford, Ann Hobson, Margretta Wikert, Olivia Kearney, Elaine Agather, Jennifer Karol, Brooke Hortenstine, and Meredith Land.