Lucchese cowboy bootmaker returns to Italy

Comparing boots. My Burgundy Lucchese at bottom. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber


The Wall Street Journal reports that the El Paso, TX-based Lucchese cowboy bootmaker is returning to Italy "with a drawl."

For 130 years, Lucchese, the brand of luxury cowboy boots founded by Salvatore Lucchese —the immigrant son of an Italian shoemaker—has been bringing European craft to a Texan style. For its newest collection, the El Paso-based company is branching out from the cowboy look and introducing Italian classics like the driving loafer and the oxford. Part of the range will be produced in Italy. "It's nice to be able to work within both worlds, to draw inspiration from Europe and combine that with the new West," said William Zeitz, Lucchese's executive vice president and creative director.

Read the full story in the WSJ 

I have two pairs of Lucchese boots -- both among the most comfortable footwear I've ever owned.

The first pair, black boots with white stitching, I bought in Austin, TX, in 2006....I found the model of the boot I liked but I think I tried on about six pairs in several boot stores before I found one that fit just right....and they fit right from the start. One of the first "excursions" I did in the boots was to take a long walk in them at Kinky Friedman's ranch in the Texas hill country south of Kerrville...

My second pair of Luccheses is more elegant -- Burgundy-colored leather and ostrich skin. I got them in a consignment store in Berkeley CA. They were the first things I saw, displayed behind the counter, when I went there a few years ago with a friend. We weren't looking for boots -- but she immediately pegged them as Luccheses (she collects cowboy boots). And they were exactly my size. And they fit like the proverbial glove....