Legendary Lucchese Boots Announces Opening of Houston Flagship Store At Highland Village December 2014
Houston, Tx, December 5, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Just in time for the holiday season, American luxury bootmaker Lucchese, the 130-year-old El Paso based company famed for handcrafting Western boots with a renowned level of quality, comfort and fit, announces that the doors will open to its fourth store (second in Texas) at Houston’s Highland Village on December 9. The 5,000-square-foot-space, complete with a dedicated custom design room where customers can create their perfect pair of boots, promises a shopping experience unlike any other. Located at 4051 Westheimer Road, the store fills the former Ann Taylor space and is neighbored by Escalante’s and Pottery Barn Kids.
“With Houston being an epicenter of the boot-wearing population worldwide, the city is a perfect fit for Lucchese,” says Jay Hamby, director of retail sales for Lucchese. As for the Highland Village location, Hamby says, “It is very compatible to the environment we are creating. The area is residential in feel, which bodes well for the ambience we plan to achieve; we want our guests to feel comfortable and stay awhile, as if they walked into someone’s home.” The location of the new store will also afford Lucchese convenient access to the broad audience it aims to reach.
The Highland Village store will feature the Lucchese Collection, exclusive merchandise available only at the company’s stores (other locations include Nashville, Santa Fe and San Antonio), select retailers and online at Lucchese.com. In addition to the handmade Western boots that Lucchese is known for, Lucchese Houston will feature the brand’s fashion footwear collection for men and women which originally debuted in Spring 2014, along with its line of Equestrian-inspired handbags, clutches, totes and cross-body bags which launched in Fall 2014. Other merchandise stocked by the store includes Lyle Lovett for Hamilton Shirts, one-of-a-kind belt buckles handmade from silver, gold and precious stones by Clint Orms Silversmiths, Hudson Jeans and Peyote Bird Designs artisanal jewelry, among others.
Created by Dallas-based Droese Raney Architecture, the same firm who revamped the Lucchese store in San Antonio last year, Lucchese Houston features a beautifully rustic ceiling made of hand-hewn white oak beams reclaimed from barns that were built around the same time that Lucchese was founded and embody the spirit of the brand’s craftsmanship and detail. Like the beams, the hardwood floors and display fixtures are also constructed of white oak. The store interior was designed by Dallas-based designer Lyn Muse of Lyn Muse Interiors, who owns Lucchese with her husband John. The luxurious space is visually divided, with the left side in darker, more masculine colors featuring men’s boots, shoes, apparel and accessories, while the right side, lighter and more feminine, showcases ladies merchandise. In the back of the store is a dedicated design center where customers can create their own boots, choosing from a full array of leathers (Lucchese carries more exotic leathers than any company in the world) and stitch patterns. Custom designs are limited only by the customer’s imagination.
Lucchese boots first earned a considerable reputation among cowboys and the U.S. Cavalry, for which the company made riding boots, and the brand has since been embraced by nearly every U.S. president, as well as legendary celebrities like Johnny Cash, John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Gregory Peck, along with more recent fans Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Kacey Musgraves, Jamie Foxx, Hayden Panettiere and Sharon Stone. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert had custom boots made for their wedding, and Kings Of Leon's Jared Followill and wife Martha Patterson also wore Lucchese boots during their nuptials.
Solidifying Lucchese as the preeminent brand in the art of bootmaking was Sam Lucchese, Jr.'s knowledge as a skilled craftsman coupled with his comprehensive understanding of the foot and how to best shape a boot to fit like no other — an art that is still practiced at the factory today. From the careful selection and cutting of the finest grade of leathers to the hand-driven lemonwood pegs and meticulous finishing of a boot, each part of the 100+ step process is critical to the finished product. To this day, every pair of Lucchese boots is hand-inspected twice, and in virtually all procedures, Lucchese relies on human hands to complete the tasks to near perfection — ensuring extraordinary comfort and quality.
Lucchese Houston store hours are 10-9 Monday through Saturday and 12-6 on Sunday. For more information call 713-960-1121,