I'd had my Texas concealed carry license for years before I ever had to use it.

In 2023, I moved into a new apartment complex. Within a year of being there, I'd drawn my pistol four times in situations where I genuinely needed to. Nothing about how I thought about everyday carry was abstract anymore.

So I went looking for a better holster. I shopped online. I went to stores. I walked gun shows. And every single holster I looked at was the same — plain leather on the outside, plain on the inside. No flair. No style. No sense that anyone had thought about the person wearing it for fourteen hours a day.

I wanted something refined. Something that felt as considered as everything else I wore. Something that protected the firearm's finish, sat comfortably against the skin, and didn't broadcast "tactical" the second I sat down. It didn't exist. So I started designing it.

In October 2024, after prototyping, testing, and research, I began production on the patent-pending design that became the Empress Holster — the holster I'd been looking for and couldn't find. Genuine leather on the outside, soft faux fur on the inside, a universal fit that works with every pistol a daily carrier is likely to own, and a silhouette built to disappear under everyday clothing.

That's the holster Empress sells today. One product, made carefully, designed around how people actually carry — not how holsters have always been made.

— Leslie Kelly (Owner)