Profile

In 1978, sports agent Doug Newton and Billy Martin, then manager of the Yankees, teamed up to bring "Western duds to Eastern dudes." The result is a chain of country-and-westernwear boutiques favored by such rough-and-tumble celebs as Neil Young, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Billy Bob Thornton; the latter has called the store his favorite, no doubt because they carry the signature line of Western shirts he designed for vintage-inspired label, Cadzoots. The first thing you notice upon walking into this fairly small, dark, and handsome store is the overwhelming smell of leather, and in fact, a great deal of the merchandise—excluding the turquoise and silver jewelry and denim—is made from the cow: jackets, skirts, hats, boots, and belts. The selection of cowboy boots extends to blue ostrich but Billy's mainly sells custom-made leather shit-kickers from their own eponymous label. There's also a large collection of belts, some with buckles big enough to inspire a John Wayne swagger in any urban cowboy. — Kathryn Williams