Seeking Texas’s Sartorial Soul in Forth Worth, an Apex of Cowboy Culture and Craft

Inside Fort Worth’s Cowboy Coliseum, a historic 1908 indoor rodeo venue in the heart of the city’s famous Stockyards, the gunpowdery smell of pyrotechnics lingers in the air. It’s the first round of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) World Finals, and the very tan and blond singer Charly Reynolds delivers the national anthem in front of a giant screen showing billowing American flags.

The bull riders—including the current champion, 20-year-old John Crimber—stand with their cowboy hat over their heart, boots shuffling nervously in the dirt. More fireworks throw sparks into the air and the crowd cheers. Minutes later the finalists will fight to stay on the back of 2,000-pound animals with names like Man Hater and Buck Nasty for eight excruciating seconds, and then dodge the bull’s hooves and horns when they’re tossed to the ground.

Well-heeled locals—the men in sport coats and starched jeans, the women in dresses with yoked tops and embroidery—fill the narrow metal seats to watch. All of them are in boots; most of them wear hats. Chad Blankenship, a friend of a friend and the general manager of the Ariat Texas Rattlers, the local PBR bull-riding team, reserved a ticket for me, thinking—correctly—that it would be a good opportunity to see Fort Worthians in action and explore the Stockyards scene.

Every year about 12 million visitors who want

Every year about 12 million visitors who want some of the Stockyards’ rustic-luxe swagger to rub off on them flock to this district on Fort Worth’s North Side, which sat at the end of the Chisholm Trail and where cattle drovers traded livestock by the millions beginning in the late 1800s. By the 1970s the area was derelict and prime for reinvention. Thanks to some savvy local developers who fought to preserve its charm, it now sees nearly double the number of visitors as the Eiffel Tower per year.

As I look around the coliseum, there is ample evidence confirming my belief that Texans don’t do subtle and they don’t want to blend in. Texans have always seemed to relish their otherness, maybe even more so now that, in our age of globalization, so much sameness has infiltrated most American and international cities. I flew to Fort Worth from my hometown of Los Angeles with the hope of seeing some of this bold individualism firsthand and to check out how this North Central Texas city has grown into the epicenter of the haute-rodeo lifestyle and the premier destination for custom high-end Westernwear.

“I grew up here, and it’s interesting to watch Fort Worth and the Stockyards mature without losing their essence and wild frontier spirit,” says Taylor Sheridan, actor, writer, producer, and the creator of the Yellowstone television drama universe. He has dreamed up a show rooted in Fort Worth’s history (1883) and another in its present day (Landman), and is at least partially responsible for the city’s renaissance.

He lives in nearby Weatherford, where Bella Hadid

He lives in nearby Weatherford, where Bella Hadid is a neighbor, and owns the 600-acre Bosque Ranch near town, which he uses for filming and production. Many tourists are drawn to the city because they’re hooked on the lifestyle Sheridan embraces in his storytelling. “It was the place where people would come and supply up for the season, and it was the last place to stock up before heading West,” he tells me.

“It’s always been the center of the ranching world. It’s still clinging very firmly to its roots.”
No place is ushering that classic Texan spirit into modern life quite like Bowie House, Auberge Collection, owned by Jo Ellard, a cutting horse legend and breeder who was a champion of the Western equestrian event that showcases a horse’s ability to work gracefully with cattle.

The hotel is my home base for the next few days. It’s mastered the rich-ranch aesthetic: A seven-foot-tall leather revolver sculpture stands in the lobby lounge, leather and calfskin hides cover much of the seating, and there’s an on-site boutique from designer Lela Rose that looks like an updated version of Dale Evans’s closet, replete with vintage turquoise belt buckles and long embroidered skirts.

I drop my bags and head out

I drop my bags and head out to explore. “If you remember seeing one of these as a kid, then we can guess how old you are,” boot fitter Jeff Stevens says with a wink, walking toward me with a vintage metal Brannock device to measure my feet. I’m at Rod Patrick Bootmakers, a 51-year-old local brand in Arlington Heights, not far from my hotel in the Cultural District. It’s known for carrying sizes 4 through 17 with a whopping 13 different widths.

The walls are lined with photos of rodeo-star customers, and a classic from the Charlie Daniels Band that I haven’t heard since the ’80s plays through the speakers. Stevens determines, based on my relatively high arch, that I’m a 9.5. He brings out a $2,000 pair of soft black ostrich-skin boots, warning me that it will be hard to go back to stiffer goat or cow leather once I slip the boots on (with the help of two hooks looped into the pull tabs).

He isn’t wrong. “A well-fitting boot should feel like a handshake around your ankle,” he explains. Long before a cowboy boot became a fashion statement, its form was rooted in function. A narrow pointy-toe boot slipped easily into stirrups. Round or blunt toes were better suited to long days working the ranch. The tall boot shaft was built for protection, and the stitching helped the leather retain its shape as it softened.

I don’t walk out with a new pair,

I don’t walk out with a new pair, but I do have a new appreciation for a well-made boot and the incredibly skilled craftspeople in South Texas and León, Mexico. Next up is a drive down Camp Bowie Boulevard, with its historic red brick pavers and mature trees, to the affluent River Oaks neighborhood to meet Jo Latham at her fine jewelry store inside the larger You Are Here boutique.

Latham, a chic 50-something Snow White doppelgänger, knows how to buy for those who understand quality and appreciate a little whimsy, including wealthy locals, visiting Texas Christian University parents, and women from across Texas and Oklahoma who make regular shopping trips to town. She shows me a $50,000 diamond-encrusted horseshoe necklace before sending me down the block to Chieffalo Americana, a Westernwear shop that sells reworked vintage and American-made clothing, Montana Silversmiths belt buckles, and refurbished short-brimmed Shady Oak hats.

“People here love to live large and look good while doing it,” says Jackie Chieffalo, a stylist who owns Chieffalo Americana with her husband, Rodger. “They do not want to look like everybody else.” She tells me that The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, an annual three-week-long event at the Will Rogers Coliseum and the adjacent Dickies Arena beginning in January, is the social and fashion event of the year.

There are people who go every night

“There are people who go every night and want to wear something different every time,” she says. “If you have something custom-made, isn’t that the ultimate luxury? It’s a mindful purchase, an investment that can be handed down.”
As I wander around the Stockyards the following afternoon, there’s a polished boomtown energy in the air. Seniors from TCU in purple graduation gowns and cowboy boots pose for photos in front of a longhorn steer tied up on the sidewalk.

Outdoor bars and tents are being set up for the crowds expected for the bull-riding event that evening, and couples of all ages hold hands and wander the brick streets. “During the day the Stockyards is like the Paris of the West,” says Sheridan. “At night the North Side bars open up and it’s a different story. They’re the kind of places where you get into fights at the pool table.

There was a time in my youth when that would have been a good night out, but now I want a nice place to take my wife for dinner and a drink.”
Sheridan closed that gap by revitalizing the Cattlemen’s Steak House, a 1947 classic in the heart of the Stockyards, and adding a lower-level members-only club. When I arrive for an early dinner, the dining room’s leather booths are already packed with groups of friends in plaid shirts with mother-of-pearl buttons and dressy denim, and stylish couples in sport coats and silky twilly scarves.

My server calls me darlin’, and I order

My server calls me “darlin’,” and I order the best steak salad of my life, washed down with perfectly salted “ranch water,” tequila and sparkling water with lime. The next morning I start my day with a visit to Maverick Fine Western Wear, opened in 1987 by the adorable Gayle Hill. Today, Hill is wearing a royal blue cowboy hat with matching eyeglass frames, and her store is stocked to the rafters with colorful dresses, vests, fringed jackets, hats, and homewares.

She sells one-off silver and turquoise jewelry from designers like Texas native Richard Schmidt, and Louis Vuitton handbags revamped with whipstitching by Austin-based Leather and Vodka. Hill’s sales team, including James, a skateboarding graphic artist turned hat shaper working behind an antique carved wood bar, knows how to sell the lifestyle. Hill leaves me with James for a custom hat shaping and says, “Holler if you get thirsty.”
James, sensing this is my first metaphoric rodeo, offers some selections that “suit my coloring.” I land on a tobacco brown felt hat.

After measurements come a few compliments from Gayle about my large but symmetrical head (“You’d be surprised how many people have heads like a cashew”), and some deliberation over whether the curled brim should be flat or have a dip in the front (I chose a slight dip). I feel perfectly normal when I walk out in my new lid, a dramatic feather tucked into the hatband. I head across the street to the Murrin family office to meet Hill’s son Philip Murrin and his wife, the painter Sarah Murrin.

Philip and his brother Stephen manage the family’s

Philip and his brother Stephen manage the family’s commercial real estate business that their father, Steve “Cowboy” Murrin Jr., started in the ’70s. The elder Murrin is credited with saving the Stockyards from demolition and transforming it into a historic zone; he also invested in the famous local honky-tonk Billy Bob’s. He’s still easy to spot with his bushy white moustache and tall hat.

When I ask Sarah about Fort Worth’s unique creativity and appreciation for craft, she suggests that the city’s arts scene plays a part. The Fort Worth Circle, a group of midcentury painters, put the community on the contemporary-art map. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, designed by Philip Johnson, celebrates masterworks and photography with roots in the West. And, she tells me, the Louis Kahn–designed Kimbell Art Museum houses a world-class collection, including Michelangelo’s first painting.

When we switch to the topic of fashion, Sarah says that “people dress like they do here because it’s a way of life. It’s authentic, not for show.” I feel a little sheepish about my new hat. “We’ve seen the trends come and go,” Philip chimes in, in the tone of a longtime resident dealing with the headaches that growth brings. Old-timers like his dad remember the 1980 frenzy over John Travolta in the movie Urban Cowboy.

Sarah adds, Now we have Landman. Because, I’m

Sarah adds, “Now we have Landman.”
Because, I’m told, no trip to the Stockyards is complete without a visit to retailer M.L. Leddy’s, I take a look. It started as a custom saddle and boot shop in the 1920s and opened its handsome Stockyards location in 1941; now it’s a favorite among professional horse trainers and well-dressed cowboys. It has its own hat-shaping bar and a line of handmade boots that start at about $1,500 a pair.

Upstairs is the saddlery. Also on offer are hand-tooled leather belts that can be stamped with your initials, and silver money clips and buckles by legendary Texas silversmith Clint Orms. There is a team of consultants and master tailors at the ready to design and sew a full custom wardrobe. Feeling buoyed by my boot education, and left out because I still don’t have a pair, I walk to Hotel Drover, where I’m staying for my last night, and into the Lucchese Custom Collection off the lobby.

Lucchese has been an iconic Texas brand since 1883 and sets the standard for fashion-forward handsewn boots. Its primary location, on Exchange Street, is its top-performing retail outlet in the US, but the smaller Drover location is where the team measures for custom boots in exotic skins and dozens of color combinations. I sit in a leather chair and place my foot on a page of a large paper ledger, while a stylish young fitter with a perfect manicure traces my feet, taking five key measurements.

While I’m not ordering boots today, I can

While I’m not ordering boots today, I can start the design process and have the specifications sent to its South Texas factory at any time. People choose emblems, like a star or a flower, for a little flair. If you’ve seen boots with a tulip design on the shaft, that’s brand founder Salvatore “Sam” Lucchese’s signature. “The starting price point for custom is about $1,500,” says store manager Nate Hill.

“After that we’ll make as many modifications as you like. The sky is the limit.” He’s not kidding. A $10,000 pair is not out of the ordinary. “We take orders for up to 10 custom pairs per day, and anywhere from 180 to 200 hands touch each boot we make.” Suddenly the $700 off-the-shelf Luccheses feel like a bargain. I land on a dressy black pair with graceful brown stitching and walk out two inches taller.

My last stop before the evening’s bull riding is The Best Hat store. Owner Susan Maddox, wearing a denim shirt and an Hermès scarf tied around her shoulders, welcomes me. She opened the shop with her late husband, Keith, in 1996, then they bought the American Hat Company factory in Conroe, Texas, in 2003. She has run the business with help from her younger daughter, Mercedes, since Keith’s death in 2019.

Maddox and her daughters, including Treasure, who works

Maddox and her daughters, including Treasure, who works in marketing for Auberge, embody the modern Fort Worth aesthetic: refined, colorful, and unabashed. They post their outfits of the day on social media and wear a high-low mix (Chanel with Zara) and Miron Crosby boots—sometimes with an American Hat adorned with their signature “Positive Times” emblem. But when they are asked to describe what makes the local style unique, it’s hard for the matriarch to sum things up: “We love a nice elevated Western look, and I don’t think we overdo it.

We don’t put on airs. People who settled here have a very bold spirit and a kind of grit that was required to make it. You can see that spirit in the people here today.”
Sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to decipher what makes the local panache so compelling. I ask Blankenship, my rodeo-ticket connection, who moved here in 2022 to work with the Rattlers, for his take on the town.

“I grew up in Oklahoma,” he says. “We always thought of Texans as being very proud and maybe a little annoying about it. Now that I live here, I get it. It’s an authentic place, where a handshake still counts as a contract. Yes, there’s a lot of local pride, but it’s not bragging. It’s like people are saying, ‘Let me show you all of our awesome.’”
Where to stay
The 106-room Bowie House, Auberge Collection has a luxury-ranch aesthetic with large, spotless rooms, a clubby, cozy lobby bar, and an indoor-outdoor restaurant to create a truly unique stay.

For the property, owner Jo Ellard selected 400

For the property, owner Jo Ellard selected 400 paintings, collages, photos, and sculptures her own private collection. Most of it is available for purchase. If you can’t score an invitation to a private ranch, a stay at Hotel Drover, Autograph Collection in the heart of the Stockyards, may be the next best thing

The 200-room property is a short walk from some of the city’s historic treasures, but it’s surrounded by peaceful gardens, a resort pool, and outdoor terraces for drinking and dining. With its warm minimal interiors and crisp, colorful furnishings, The Crescent Hotel, Fort Worth reflects the city’s more restrained side. Bonuses: an on-site Canyon Ranch Wellness Club and the elegant (and beautifully lit) Emilia’s restaurant.

Where to eat and drink
The 1947 classic Cattlemen’s Steak House, which was given a new life—along with a members-only club in its basement—by mega-producer Taylor Sheridan, features modern steakhouse go-tos. Order ranch water and a steak salad at the bar, and enjoy the world-class people-watching. No trip to Fort Worth is complete without a visit to bustling family-owned Tex-Mex institution Joe T.

Garcia’s and its sprawling patio

Garcia’s and its sprawling patio. Join the always festive crowd for strong, salty margaritas and classics like enchiladas and chiles rellenos, and mariachi on Friday and Saturday nights and all day Sunday. A piled-high plate of ribs and brisket and an ice-cold beer is a Texas standard, and no one in Fort Worth does it better than Railhead Smokehouse BBQ, a 40-year-old barbecue joint owned by state representative Charlie Geren.

Where to find westernwear
Realtor Rodger Chieffalo inherited a short-brimmed beaver felt hat beloved by legendary local businessman Amon G. Carter, then began sourcing and refurbishing similar hats to give as gifts to clients. The passion became Chieffalo Americana which now includes upscale American-made and reworked Western vintage wear. Owned and operated by the Franklin family for three generations, M.L.

Leddy’s sells its own line of custom boots and hats—and anything else a well-heeled Texan might want. The store’s rich, wood-trimmed interior smells like saddle leather and oil money. Packed to the rafters with fashionable Western clothing and accessories, Maverick Fine Western Wear is a must-stop shop in the heart of the Stockyards. Owner Gayle Hill hosts several designer trunk shows a year for her loyal customers, who rely on the Maverick buyer’s eye for heirloom-quality pieces.

Dallas-born designer Lela Rose has elevated and adapted

Dallas-born designer Lela Rose has elevated and adapted cowgirl chic to appeal to the Net-a-Porter crowd. Her shop inside Bowie House sells clothing, home accessories, and boots from her Lucchese collaboration. At Crissy Jean Faulconer’s appointment-only Proper Supply Co. in Weatherford (a ranch community near Fort Worth), Faulconer sells jeans stitched from rare Texas denim and custom sterling silver belt buckles made using vintage molds from Bohlin Company, a favorite of Western stars like Roy Rogers.

Diplo is a customer. Where to peruse jewelry
The fine jeweler Jo Lathamsmanship with a wink—like horseshoe pendants from French Lebanese designer Selim Mouzannar or a diamond-encrusted pistol charm. “Chief” Garren Still, who is half Cherokee, crafts and sells a curated selection of sterling and American-mined turquoise jewelry, like ornate cuffs and statement necklaces at Weatherford establishment Chief’s Trading Post

Where to try on hats
The marquee in front of the Best Hat Store reads “Positive Times,” and the optimistic “+ x” symbol is embroidered onto the store’s signature hat patches. Inside, rows of in-house brand American Hat Company (manufactured in Bowie) line the walls, and customers queue up for sessions with its team of experienced shapers. The Mule Alley Flea Style, the most successful of the 10 locations owned by Dallas-based former magazine editor Brittany Cobb, caters to a trendy customer who loves the cowboy lifestyle but spends little time on a ranch.

Shoppers choose their hat shape and then browse

Shoppers choose their hat shape and then browse bins of artfully curated bits and bobsthe trained eye, a Lucchese boot is as identifiable (and aspirational) as a Louboutin. The Texas-based boot brand founded in 1883 has a reputation as one of the world’s finest boot makers for men and women, using lemonwood-peg construction (instead of metal tacks) and soft, sturdy leather that’s comfortable straight out of the box

Built to last, well-worn pairs can get a factory refurbishment for a few hundred dollars. Rod Patrick, known for its wide spectrum of available sizes among the 15,000 pairs of in-stock boots, sells premium and bespoke boots to a discerning client who appreciates attentive service. Its relatively rapid custom timeline—delivering boots in 6 to 12 months—is also a plus. This article appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of Condé Nast Traveler.

Source: www.cntraveler.com