Percival (Percy) Steinhart III, the founder of iconic slipper brand Stubbs & Wootton, passed away on October 19 at the age of 76, the company confirmed.
Known by most as Percy, Steinhart was born in Havana, Cuba on March 24, 1949, and later studied business administration at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
After graduating from university, Steinhart worked as an executive with Citicorp in New York City before pivoting into fashion and footwear after a friend convinced him to work as a designer for Unisa, a Spanish shoe company.
“Working in Spain gave Percy the opportunity to go on his own to create the perfect velvet slipper,” Steinhart’s younger brother, Frank, told FN. “He always had a passion for the Edwardian velvet slipper and found a way to make them a lot more comfortable through the factory he found in Spain.”
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In a statement on Stubbs & Wootton’s Instagram profile, the company announced the news earlier this week, calling Steinhart a “visionary in the truest sense.”
“His ideas arrived fully formed – playful, daring and disarmingly elegant,” the statement said. “His curiosity was boundless, his appetite for discovery insatiable. Whether in history, art, design, or conversation, he sought beauty everywhere and delighted in sharing it with others.”
Founded in 1993, Steinhart named the company Stubbs & Wootton in homage to the 17th and 18th-century English sporting painters George Stubbs and John Wootton, whose work he long admired.
“With his new venture, he set out to redefine the velvet slipper, a silhouette once reserved for the drawing rooms of 18th-century England,” the company stated. “He saw what others didn’t: the slipper was not a relic or old-world formality, but a modern expression of individuality. It became a canvas for Percy to tell stories, something which he loved to do. His earliest designs, embroidered with foxes, palm trees, and fly-fishing scenes, united two worlds he cherished – the relaxed elegance of Palm Beach and the timeless sophistication of England.”
“Although he got his start in a financial firm, Percy had a big passion for art, architecture and history,” Frank Steinhart said. “All of that is reflected in his creative vision for the brand.”
In an interview with FN in 2013, Percy Steinhart noted that he finds inspiration from such diverse sources as “a sewer cover on a New York street to columns of the Parthenon,” adding that he’s also looked to fashionable personalities like David Hicks, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Carolina Herrera as muses.
Remarking on the brand’s 20th anniversary at the time, Percy Steinhart told FN, “It has been a great ride, watching the metamorphosis [of our] clientele [from staid] to young and hip, without losing [sight of] our integrity or mission to create the iconic slipper to wear anytime, everywhere and with anything.”
As Stubbs & Wootton began to grow, so too did the brand’s influence on local Palm Beach, Fla. society. The slipper company quickly became Palm Beach’s darling footwear brand, and eventually a global name synonymous with wit, taste, and craftsmanship.
Fashion industry veteran Michael Macko noted that he was “one of the most special people” he had the pleasure of calling a friend.
“I was friends with Percy for over 20 years and traveled extensively with him, visiting him in his numerous homes in Palm Beach, Miami, Connecticut, and Manhattan, as well as summer trips to Provincetown,” Macko told FN. “He was the most generous person as well, and for years, every Christmas, he hosted a dinner for all his New York friends in the private dining room of Casa Lever, with a monogrammed pouch from Stubbs as your place card.”
Recalling a favorite moment with Steinhart, Macko explained that he was the type of person who would casually explain to you the origin of the term “POSH” which, before air travel, during the height of Trans-Atlantic ship travel, meant “Port Out, Starboard Home” which is how the elite traveled.
“Percy famously had this embroidered on a favorite pair of slippers with ‘PO’ on the left and ‘SH’ on the right,” Macko said. “Percy was a class act all around, a bright light whose friendship warmed you and made you feel amazing and lucky to know him, and he will be terribly missed by all of us who loved him.”
For Stubbs & Wootton creative director Justin Irvine, Steinhart was more than a founder of a brand – he was the spirit of the company.
“To me, he was a father figure, mentor, and best friend,” Irvine told FN. “I was fortunate to help bring his vision to life and push creative boundaries alongside him for nearly two decades. His wit, taste, and irreverent sense of elegance defined the brand and inspired everyone who worked with him. We will continue in his honor, preserving the humor, craftsmanship, and point of view that made Stubbs & Wootton a true original.”
As for the future of Stubbs & Wootton, Frank Steinhart maintained that the company is “not going anywhere” and will continue to operate its stores in New York City and Palm Beach.
“Percy built an incredible team that he trusted completely – a team that became an extension of his family,” he told FN. “His vision remains our compass, guiding us as we preserve what he built and continue the story he began.”
