How the Velvet Slipper-Clad World of Stubbs & Wootton Went From Elite to Street
The Duchess of Marlborough and socialite Charlotte Ford were a couple of the earliest reported clients. Kanye West and Olivia Palermo have been wearing them for a decade. Valentino front man Carlos Souza is an unofficial brand ambassador. Even Valentino Garavani himself has been photographed wearing them in needlepoint, as has Aquazzura creative director Edgardo Osorio, and Vogue’s Hamish Bowles. Carolina Herrera and her husband Rienaldo wear them often. NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony and actress Rebel Wilson have identical pairs in black velvet with a skull and swords motif, Lady Gaga was snapped wearing the “Martini” in navy velvet, and Grace Kelly’s grandson Pierre Casiraghi has them in black velvet with cheeky “Screw You” embroidery (as does Scott Disick).
While the 27-year-old shoe brand Stubbs & Wootton didn’t invent velvet evening slippers, it’s managed to make a quaint relic of the Downton Abbey age into marker of cool elegance.
Founded in 1993 by former New York financial advisor Percy Steinhart, the company’s name is a nod to the 17th and 18th century English sporting and wildlife painters John Wootton and George Stubbs, which explains early designs like running foxes, palm trees, and fly-fishing motifs.
“The bulk of my career was spent with Citibank in their private bank,” explains Steinhart. “In the end, because I’m Cuban, I handled most of the Spanish-speaking countries—I had Spain, Portugal, Central America, and The Caribbean.” When they told the executive that he needed to travel 70 percent of his time, Steinhart gave notice.
His next stop was the art world. “I decided to try something new, so I went to Sotheby’s thinking I could run its Latin American Art program because I knew the guy overseeing it then didn’t even speak Spanish.” Although an avid collector now, he admittedly didn’t know much about art at the time and realized he likely wouldn’t survive in the job.
Shortly thereafter, Steinhart took a trip to Palm Beach—and that’s when the shoe finally dropped. He noticed his friends were all wearing the same style of slipper and inspired, he headed to Europe (with an old, beat-up English slipper with a fox head on it) to find a factory.
“I decided I wanted to make the velvet slipper but didn’t want to do it in England because they’re too stiff,” he says. “So, I went to a bunch of places in Italy and they basically just laughed at me. Then, I finally found a very small, family-owned factory in Spain—in La Mancha—that had made slippers for Hermès at one point. The owners invited me to one of those three-hour Spanish lunches, and by the time we finished they’d already made me a sample. We’ve been together ever since.”
In the beginning Steinhart tried peddling his men’s slippers wholesale and admits, “at the time, I had no idea what I was doing.” He eventually met Bonnie Pressman who was director of women’s fashion for Barney’s. “She said if I made them for women, she’d buy them, so I did.” Today, he sells far more women’s slippers and believes it’s because they’re made in a men’s footwear factory—so they’re much more comfortable.
“I’ve been a supporter of theirs since I was young,” says Olivia Palermo, whose eponymous e-commerce site offers a selection Stubbs. “My personal favorites are the leopard and camouflage needlepoint prints.”
“Tim and I, and so many of our friends, have been wearing ‘Stubbies’ for decades,” says Suzanne Tucker, co-founder—along with Timothy Marks—of San Francisco-based interior design firm Tucker & Marks. “His first pair were probably needlepoint with palm trees 25 years ago, and mine were likely the black velvet version.”
One of the couple’s favorite pair are the irreverent “Screw You,” which they’ve gifted to a few select friends and which have been the brand’s most sold style. “Funny enough, they were inspired by a pair of 1940s Calvin Curtis suspenders with a repeating pattern of screws and U’s,” says Steinhart.
Josh Flagg, a West Coast real estate agent and cast member on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, has been a client for over a decade. “I’d stay at the Carlyle Hotel in New York [where Stubbs has an outpost] and saw the shoes through the window. I walked in and never stopped buying them after that.” Flagg’s go-to versions are solid black (a style formerly known as “Insecure”), bespoke with his initials, or needlepoint.
The brand also developed a way to produce its popular needlepoint slippers in greater volume. “Today, the only people who make needlepoint on looms are in Brussels,” explains Steinhart. “There’s probably only the one family-owned company, and we’ve been working with them for almost thirty years. We’re able to design and produce the pattern in substantial yardage in Brussel, then send it over to Spain.”
“Stubbs & Wootton slippers are intrinsically associated, for me, with Palm Beach where I acquired a taste for them more than 20 years ago,” says Alexander Kraft, a style star and chairman of Sotheby’s International Realty France–Monaco. “It’s probably fair to say that this taste for them has developed over time into a full blown addiction: I am afraid I have dozens of pairs, both off the rack and bespoke, not only in my Palm Beach pad but also in my other homes in Monaco, Provence, Paris, and Berlin.”
Another thing that sets Stubbs apart from the pack are its collaborations. In 2009 the company began working with designer Michael Bastian, followed by Thom Browne (for Brooks Brothers’ Black Fleece collection) and J. Crew in 2013. It also produced a series with Scalamandré the same year. Since 2015, the brand has developed limited-edition slippers with artists Happy Menocal, Luke Edward Hall, and John Derian, the heritage British decorating firm Colefax & Fowler, American cravateur Calvin Curtis, and most recently with Monopoly (Hasbro) for the game’s 85th anniversary.
“The collaboration with Stubbs was part of a comprehensive licensing program at Scalamandré that I’ll always be proud of,” recalls Steven Stolman, designer, author and former president of Scalamandré. “I must say Stubbs was the hardest nut to crack. Percy is fiercely independent, and rightly so, as he truly owns the classification and doesn’t need to collaborate.”
“Stubbs & Wootton make the finest slippers—the most comfortable and with the best designs,” agrees artist and designer Luke Edward Hall. “The embroidered motifs are colorful, unexpected and witty. I've loved collaborating with them, particularly as I've been able to produce designs inspired by some of my passions, such as Ancient Greek mythology and the Egyptians.”
For Steinhart, the idea of the velvet slipper has always been bigger than just exquisite footwear for pontiffs and royalty—though he has designed pairs for Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and King Juan Carlos of Spain. It’s really been about playful self-expression, innovation and giving tradition a kick in the pants.
“We all had the same slipper with fox heads, the Prince of Wales plumes, a crown, or our monograms. I thought it was only natural to be able to have things that were more fun, and that speak to our client’s individuality.”
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