Family Ties
Generations of ALLI ADDISON’S kin have lived at Dana Adobe, which inspires her equestrian-themed Milton Menasco line
Alli Addison outside the Dana Adobe in a Norma Kamali gown, Milton Menasco x Street & Saddle lariat tie, and American Hat Co. felt hat.
Written by Elizabeth Varnell
Photographs by Dewey Nicks
If you grow up on a ranch, “it’s almost required that you have braids and braces and draw horses all day,” says Alli Addison. The founder of the equine-inspired Milton Menasco lifestyle line (shopmiltonmenasco.com) was raised on generational property in Nipomo that once stretched from the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains west to the Pacific Ocean. Her great-great-great-grandfather William Goodwin Dana married Maria Josefa Carrillo—the daughter of Alta California’s provisional governor—and became a Mexican citizen to get the land grant. He built the Dana Adobe (danaadobe.org), now a landmark run by a nonprofit, where members of Addison’s extended family lived from 1839 to the 1990s.
“I have this lifestyle, and this is my passion. Horses are my passion.”
Addison, a mother of two, lives five miles north of the historic house on part of the original 48,000 acres granted to Dana by the Mexican government. “I’ve lived here my entire life. We’re raising our kids on the same property where I grew up,” she says. Her parents live next door, as do her brother and his family. Herds of cattle still roam the land. “With this horse culture and cowboy culture, there’s a tradition to honor the land and animals and to be a steward of it,” she says. “There’s an innate tie to the land.” But cattle ranching isn’t as viable as it used to be, and these days it’s more of a hobby. “My dad, he hangs on to it out of tradition,” she says. “We all have other jobs and things that help sustain it.”
Still, the family continues the traditional work of branding by using ropes, riding on horseback, and what Addison calls “all the old-fashioned stuff.” Each year new calves are given ear tags and vaccinated. “Adults with day jobs will give up their day to help a neighboring ranch do this. If they don’t have cattle, they wake up early, load up, and come over. My dad drops everything to go help out. That’s the way it’s done. I tell people the West is still alive and well in California,” she says.
Addison’s ancestors’ original house was built just after the cattle arrived. It’s the oldest historic adobe in San Luis Obispo County, according to Jim Corridan, the president of the nonprofit organization Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos (DANA), which restored the structure and added a cultural center and vineyard. Built by Dana, a ship’s captain from Boston, the house has an adobe exterior with a floor plan influenced by his New England roots. “You can see adobe bricks and the original windows and doors,” says Addison.
Corridan points out a number of East Coast influences that set the structure apart: “The most obvious difference are the closets [shelves] flanking the fireplace in the primary bedroom. Nearly all rancho-era adobes didn’t have closets at all.” There’s also wooden furniture made of sandalwood and redwood acquired from fellow ship captains. “Almost nowhere else in California can you stand at one of the grand adobe homes and look out at a nearly pristine view of the landscape, just as it appeared when the building was being constructed,” says Corridan.
In addition to the cattle and the adobe, horses are also a through line for Addison and her family. Staying true to her roots, she named her company after her great-uncle on her mother’s side, Milton Menasco. The Los Angeles–born artist began his career creating movie posters and sets, became an art director who later drew World War II air and sea battles for Life, and then became a sought-after equine portraitist in Kentucky. He painted Secretariat for Penny Chenery, the horse’s owner, and executed commissions for Thoroughbred aficionados John Hay Whitney, Isabel Dodge Sloane, and Lucille Markey.
Menasco died before Addison was born, but his wife came to live with her family. “I’d spend my days in her home poring over his art,” she says. Her parents and grandparents also had many of Menasco’s original paintings and prints. “He had a long career, so there’s a lot of art. And because I grew up on a ranch and in a horse world, I was obsessed with the art.”
“With Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams embracing cowboy culture, you see it through their eyes. It’s going to help change the narrative.”
She began collecting Menasco’s work and posting digital images on an Instagram account, and it snowballed. An avid equestrian who rides English and Western, Addison began incorporating fashion and lifestyle designs into the posts, and the brand took off. “I have this lifestyle, and this is my passion. Horses are my passion,” she says. Her line of elevated ranch wear embraces all aspects of horse culture. There are collaborations with the Canadian line Street & Saddle, yielding handmade shirts, plaids in neutral tones, chore jackets, overalls, and other pieces that evoke her elegant grandmothers’ grace and grit on horseback.
The look is getting an international glow-up with Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, Olympic equestrian events held at Versailles, and fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, which is saddling up with Pharrell Williams this fall. “With Beyoncé and Pharrell embracing cowboy culture, you see it through their eyes. It’s going to help change the narrative,” says Addison. “It promotes knowledge, and people want to learn more about horses. For those of us who are immersed in it, we love this; we just want people to come and do it with us,” she adds.
Addison in Milton Menasco vintage Wrangler denim blazer and high-rise trouser jeans, Milton Menasco x Street & Saddle shirt, and Stetson hat inside the Dana Adobe living room.
Milton Menasco fall designs are rooted in the company’s elegant work wear aesthetic and its trove of vintage, including restored midcentury pieces and gems from past seasons. Also joining those looks are some based on art from Western and equestrian artists and artisans. The lineup speaks to the company’s beginnings, “what Milton Menasco was originally established for: the love of art,” says Addison.
