Leanne Ford returns to fashion with debut boot collection: 'You’re not going to catch me in a kitten heel'

Leanne Ford knows exactly what she will and won’t wear. “I’m either comfortable and low-key or I’m dressed up! You’re not going to catch me in a kitten heel!” the interior designer and former HGTV host told FashionUnited. That all-or-nothing approach shaped her first footwear collection, four boots designed with Newport Beach, California-based leather brand beek.

The collection is Beek’s first private label line and is sold exclusively on beekshop.com, with prices ranging from 395 to 450 dollars. It also marks Ford’s return to fashion.

“Fashion was actually my first career, long before interiors came into the picture, so it’s been really fun to find my way back to it with a whole new perspective,” she said.

Ford designed the boots with Beek founders Birgit Klett and Kenna Florie, whom she has known for two decades. “I’ve known Birgit and Kenna since my twenties, back in my Roxy and wardrobe styling days, and I’ve loved watching what they’ve built with beek,” she said. “They care about the same things I do: beautiful natural materials, thoughtful craftsmanship, comfort, and making things that are meant to be lived in and loved for a long time.”

The collection includes four styles: the Worker, Rider, Country and Town. “I wanted to make a collection that could, in theory, be the only shoes you need,” Ford said. “So I really thought about the four boots I actually wear and need in my own life.”

The Worker is a combat boot with a subtle platform and back zipper. The Rider reworks the classic campus boot with a rounded toe and low heel. The Country is a pointed-toe cowboy boot, and the Town is a dressier style with a platform and heel. “Worker is the everyday, get-things-done boot. Rider is that classic, easy boot you can throw on with anything. Country brings in the Western influence I’ve always loved. And Town is for dressing up,” Ford said.

Comfort first

Comfort shaped every design decision. “If I’m not comfortable, I’m not having a good time,” Ford said. Her requirements included a wider toe box, a rubber sole with grip, double cushioning that removes the need for an insole, and soft leather that improves with wear. “I also wanted a little swoop at the ankle so the boots are flattering on your leg when you’re not wearing pants,” she added.

That focus is also why Beek made sense as a partner. “They understand that a beautiful shoe isn’t really beautiful if you don’t want to wear it,” she said. “So we never had to choose between how the boots looked and how they felt.”

Ford approached the collection the same way she approaches a room, she said: minimal, warm and earthy, with “zero pattern, nothing fussy.” “Whether it’s a room or a boot, I want the shape and the material to do the talking,” she said.

Working with Beek also gave her a new view of leather. “It’s not just about finding a leather that looks beautiful on day one — you’re thinking about how it’s going to soften, stretch, crease and wear over time,” she said. “That was fascinating to me because it’s so similar to how I think about materials in a home. I don’t want things to stay perfect. I want them to get better with age and tell the story of how they’ve been used.”

What comes next

Ford hopes the boots are just the start of her return to fashion. “I’d love to do jackets next — I have a lot of opinions about a good jacket! And bags would be really fun, too,” she said. “I’m not interested in making things just to make them, though. It has to be something I genuinely want to wear, use and live with myself.”

For now, she wants the boots to be worn hard. “Scuff them up, travel in them, work in them, dance in them,” Ford said. “The more you wear them, the more they become yours.”