Miista Opens Its First L.A. Store to a Surprisingly Robust Boot Culture

A new large, unmissable storefront has arrived on a prime stretch of Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood, Calif. It belongs to Miista, a 15-year-old independent, shoe-centric brand based between London and Spain; this new location is its first in Los Angeles and second in the United States after opening up shop in New York City in 2024.

While Miista has expanded its product offering over the years to include a range of footwear and, more recently, clothing, boots are its bread-and-butter. Of course, L.A., with its crisp 85-degree November days, almost never requires anything with more coverage than a ballet flat. Since moving here from New York in 2017 (happily leaving my entire boot collection behind), I’ve always wondered how boots sell in SoCal.

“I wonder that myself, I’m scared!” Miista’s founder and creative director, Laura Villasenin, admitted when I previewed the store last week. It had only just opened, but an associate confirmed that some boots had been purchased already. A relief, if a confusing one. “I’m like, why are they buying boots? It’s so warm,” she said.

In Europe, Miista has stores in Barcelona, London and Paris. But as an indie brand, it takes a “very sustainable and slow” approach to expansion, spending at least a couple of years on each store opening and using each one as a learning opportunity. Even before investing in U.S. storefronts, the brand tested the New York and L.A. markets with unique events, like a rave in a clothing factory where guests could bring their old Miista pieces and have them repaired while they danced. “That made us understand how much of a craving for Miista there is in the U.S.,” Villasenin shared.

Bookending the brand’s name on the store’s exterior are two phrases: “Our physical corner of the world” sits on the left. Per Villasenin, that’s “because it takes us so long to make a corner and to make it the way we like.” On the right is, “Our dedication to the alternative,” which refers to Miista’s community and “belonging to a certain way of seeing society, belonging to a certain way of seeing culture, belonging to a certain way of seeing politics,” she added.

“We also say that we do things a bit in the opposite way at Miista: remaining independent, crafting our fashion with a short supply chain, making sure that we put a lot of effort on the craft and the people,” she continued. Starting with shoes, and then expanding into apparel a decade later, is another example of the brand taking an alternative route.

“It’s definitely taking longer for people to realize that we also make apparel,” she shared. “Our footwear category has been so strong from the beginning. And I think people sort of put you [in a box]: ‘Okay, Miista is the shoe brand,’ and we don’t want to be the shoe brand. We really don’t like to be categorized.” That explains why clothing makes up the new store’s “centerpiece,” where handmade knits and sporty separates hang on custom metal rails designed to look like sound waves — a nod to the brand’s connection to music.

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It was the perfect backdrop for a store opening party the night before — the first of many, according to Villasenin. There, guests proved that boots are as much a stylistic choice as they are a practical one. After all, it was at least 70 degrees out, but that wasn’t stopping anyone.

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