On the hunt for not-so-serious cowboy boots

About this time last year I visited Austin, TX, and I wanted to come home with a pair of real, quality, sturdy cowhide leather, cowboy boots. Preferably from from Allens on Congress street, because I wanted boots with cred! But once I started looking, I realized I would need cowboy boots that could easily assimilate into my wardrobe, and not look horribly out of place in NYC. Silly, fun, fashion cowboy boots. Except, those would be hard to come by at the gold standard of boot stores. That’s like, I don’t know, going to Levi’s for jeggings? Realizing I didn’t actually want REAL cowboy boots (zero street cred for me), I wasn’t sure my shopping excursion could be successful…

Turns out I did find a couple of pairs I liked! I loved those red, tone-on-tone, embroidered ones, I just wished they were higher. The black, calf-high, tone-on-tone, embroidered, boots were exactly what I wanted. But they didn’t have my size. Tone-on-tone embroidery is perfect because there’s visual interest, yet is subtle enough to not overpower a look. Ultimately, I left Allen’s empty-handed that day.

Let’s take a closer look at more boots, shall we?

A number of elements come together to make a cowboy boot: top stitching, the stubby leather heel that slants inwards (“underslung”, if you will), squared or mildly squared toe (angled, but not pointy); curved/dipped at the boot straps (aka top of the boot shaft), and calf height. Here are some examples of “cowboy-adjacent” boots that are more my style:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11

It’s funny, because while a few days weeks ago I was OBSESSED with a pair of Jessica Simpson boots, going back and looking at the cowboy boots I’ve considered over the past few months, I’m no longer convinced the Jessica Simpson ones were my be-all-end-all. For one thing, buying anything with rhinestones is always a crapshoot that they won’t fall off. Especially shoes. In New York City. Rhinestones are no match for the subway.

And the height. For some reason I’m determined that my cowboy (or cowboy-adjacent) boots need to be calf height. Hypothetically I could have two pairs of boots that scratch different itches (short and tall), but that seems excessive? Anyway, the search continues, but thanks to Anthro I discovered Momo New York, and I feel like it’s just a matter of time before I find my perfect, not-so-serious cowboy boots there. The search continues!