Introducing Partlow: new boot collection with Dallas and Los Angeles roots

Cowboy boots have always been proudly embedded into the architecture of Texas’ style.

Some of the biggest brands — Tony Lama, Little’s Boot Company, M. L. Leddy’s and Lucchese — were started and made in Texas. In the last century, boots have evolved from trustworthy ranch footwear to a fashion staple.

Modern western boots are now on display at Neiman Marcus, situated among designer labels.

That’s how the sister act behind Partlow Boots, Preston Hollow neighbor Kasey Lemkin and Los Angeles’ Lawren Sample, describe their fashion company.

“There’s nothing like two girls from the south like us walking into Neiman Marcus and seeing your boots on display sitting in the middle between Louboutin and Louis Vuitton,” Sample says.

Growing up in Mississippi, they were surrounded by ranches and strong women.

Their grandmother and the namesake of their brand, Gigi Partlow, was no different. (A boot will be released in her name in the future).

“[She] was a force to be reckoned with,” Lemkin says. “She was the matriarch of our family.”

Sample jokes that she was the first woman in town to wear pants while everyone else wore dresses. She was the first one awake in the morning, already fully made up and had breakfast ready for everybody. 

“She just would take no nonsense and we all looked up to her,” Lemkin says. “We wanted to name these boots after somebody who inspires us in daily life and women who wake up every morning and get things done.”

Cowboy boots and western wear have long been the sisters’ fashion staple.  While they were living in Los Angeles, they noticed a lack of an authentic cowboy boots in the city. Lemkin left Los Angeles for Preston Hollow when her husband accepted a new job. 

Regardless, they both knew how they could fine tune country wear. 

“We wanted to see boots that we would want to buy off the shelves and we just weren’t seeing that,” Sample says. “The ones that we were seeing were very ‘yeehaw’ and we wanted something that you could wear every day so that it was more the boots were complementing your outfit instead of competing with your outfit.”

Together with Sample’s experience in celebrity styling and Lemkin’s work in fashion marketing, the duo found a way to work together.

They put pen to paper and within two years, they had a vision with some nonnegotiables: It needed to be a hybrid between a riding boot and cowboy boot. It needed to be comfortable and unique. And it needed to be manufactured in Italy.

“That was where the best leather and the best craftsmanship is found,” Lemkin says.

Crafted in Italy in the Veneto region where Saint Laurent and Tom Ford make their shoes, the boots are made with calfskin leather and vegetable dye. The inside has thick cushioned padding, a pointed toe, a two-inch heel, a 12-inch long shaft and on the back of each boot, a golden horseshoe for the brand’s emblem.

 “When you put your foot in there it should feel like you’re walking in a sneaker,” Lemkin says.

In 2023, they launched their boot label — which averages about $1,000 a pair — at Neiman Marcus in NorthPark Center, just around the corner from where Lemkin lives. The next launch was in Los Angeles followed by New York. 

There are six boots so far in the collection and each are named and styled after admirable women.

With Partlow still in its infancy as far as new businesses go, they were seeing numbers ahead of schedule as they appeared in Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Katie Holmes was caught wearing them on the streets of New York City.

“I had a woman last week say ‘I’ve never bought cowboy boots,’” Lemkin says. “I said ‘Well, you’ve never tried on our cowboy boots.'”