Best Westerns
Michael Anthony Carnacchi—whose label reads simply Michael Anthony—may be one of the few bootmakers to make house calls, though he usually works his magic in a tiny, 500-square-foot shop in Sebastopol, Calif. Here he fashions German Freudenberg calf and rare saltwater crocodile into one-of-a-kind cowboy boots for well-heeled men who, he says, are more inclined to “punch the pedals on a private jet than jump on the back of a horse.”
Carnacchi, who learned his craft from retired veteran Texas bootmaker Jack Reed, is especially enamored with exotic materials—kangaroo, saltwater crocodile, python—that are generally illegal to sell in the United States without government authorization. But Carnacchi is the only bespoke bootmaker with connections at Gordon Choisy, the Hermès-owned French leather goods supply house that sells him these skins. And he is the only U.S. bootmaker licensed with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to sell these materials Stateside. Carnacchi’s leather confections require 50 hours of labor and are embellished with customized seams, pullstraps, and fancy stitching.