Vaquera Brought All of The Cowgirls To The Yard For Its 10th Anniversary Show in Paris
We speak with the brand’s creative directors, Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee, on creating their first footwear offering and making their mark on the PFW calendar.
You can always count on New York-based label Vaquera to start Paris Fashion Week off right. Celebrating 10 years of the brand, Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee presented their Spring/Summer 2025 collection, noting that this is their favorite collection yet. The team’s sophistication and confidence is evident – perfectly blending established essentials with their more voluminous and exaggerated silhouettes.
For SS25, the brand looked at signifiers of traditional luxury through the lens of American sportswear. Such signifiers included “Country Club” and gold chain graphics, western belt buckles and faux fur scarves. The inspiration of cowgirls was woven into the collection from stirrup thigh highs to horses placed on T-shirts and gowns.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, the brand launched its first footwear offering. ‘Vaquera” means cowgirl in Spanish, so it was only natural for them to use cowboy boots as an initial reference point. The collection features two, 100% leather footwear styles; a knee-high boot and a pump, both including a small kitten heel.
Peep the detailed images of the collection above and continue reading for our full interview with the creative directors below.
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It’s a day after your SS25 showcase, how are you both feeling?
DiCaprio: Mentally, fab. Physically, flab. We’re super happy with the way everything turned out. We had a lot of goals for this season and I feel like they were actually met. We’re loving how the pictures and the reviews turned out. But, damn, it was a hustle to get it together.
Taubensee: We worked for two months straight and only took one day off. So, it’s like a big come down, but we’re really happy. It’s our favorite collection ever.
What were your goals this season?
DiCaprio: Just streamlining our vision and making it really clear. Sometimes we tend to think we need to reinvent the wheel and ignore everything we’ve done in the past and that just over complicates things. This is our 10 year anniversary and for this season we just feel really confident in what we’ve accomplished. We’ve done so much. We’ve really made a voice that’s uniquely ours. That’s something that we accomplished this season, making our vision very clear in a way that people can understand.
Taubensee: We’ve tended to over complicate things for ourselves in the past. We’d think that we’d need to come with a really artistic angle and make this grand statement but ultimately it is a fashion brand and we do what we need to survive. And, because we feel confident in ourselves, we feel like we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Making a successful business is about simplifying and streamlining.
10 years in, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about Vaquera?
DiCaprio: The most surprising thing is that I’m the most excited about being commercial. These days, we feel more excited about the commercial pieces. We’re like, “Wow, this is really strong. I want to wear it. I can’t wait to see it in stores.” This season was one of the first seasons where we were like, oh, “If we’re not feeling that. We’re not going to do it. We’re not going to pull a stunt if that’s not what we’re inspired by right now.” So, it felt really good to follow my heart.
There’s so many people that come to Paris the first day of Fashion Week specifically to not miss your show. What do you think you offer to the PFW calendar that makes you stand out?
DiCaprio: Oh, god, it’s so hard to compliment yourself like that. You know what? I think that we have fun. People look forward to our shows because it doesn’t feel like work. We have fun with fashion so people expect to have a good time and see something new and entertaining. They don’t know what to expect so, that anticipation is really exciting.
Taubensee: There’s a lot of energy and reality to our work. It’s a really small team. It’s Patrick and I and our senior designer, Laura Spence. We do everything. So, it’s very real and it’s really from us. That comes out in our work, you can sense that it’s just a small team who’s actually doing something because they love it.
How would you describe your collection in three words?
DiCaprio: Chic, freaky and sexy.
What can you tell us about your first footwear offering?
DiCaprio: We’ve used the same set of shoes for every show. They’re like granny-shoe pumps that we spray paint various colors. There’s some pairs that have been around for eight years so, they’re very rotted and falling apart. But that was kind of a vibe because they were old and evolving and the paint was flaking off. It was beautiful. So, a new shoe that is our own design and on our terms is like a dream come true. We’ve been talking with Dover Street Market on developing our footwear for a while now. We teamed up with Philéo, which is another brand DSM represents, and they helped us to develop the shoe.
Vaquera means “cowgirl” so we thought it was really cool to own that and make a cowgirl boot and take a style that can be unflattering and make it new and hot. The first of the shoes is a cowgirl pump that is based on the set of shoes that we used for eight years. It’s a low kitten heel with a pointed toe and feels sensible, sexy and vintage at the same time.
Taubensee: Yeah, we have one specific set of heels from that group of like 40 that are our favorite heels. So, the pump is a combination of that exact shoe with cowboy boots.
DiCaprio: Then, the second is a boot is more of a traditional cowboy boot height, but it has that same bottom and the same heel.
Taubensee: For sales, we’re hoping to do a white spray painted boot. People have wanted our Vaquera spray-painted white boots for years now so, we’re going to produce that in addition to the black ones.
Two months of working with only one day off, what are you most looking forward to now that the show is finished?
DiCaprio: Doing nothing. I know that’s a boring answer but we’ve been doing so much I just want to be like, “I don’t know what I’m doing today. I’ll just figure it out or I’ll just lay in bed all day.”
Taubensee: Yesterday, we basically did that. I always feel a pressure to see people and go to parties but last night I was like “F-ck it – I’m going to bed.” It’s hard trying to figure out who you are after you’ve been working non stop. Like, who am I? What are my hobbies? Who are my friends? But, it’s always kind of fun to rediscover that, too.
