The Art of the Slipper

When you think of a smoking slipper, you likely think of a few different things:

1. Elegant aristocrats in a smoke-filled room;

2. Athletes and celebrities dressed to the nines;

3. And the cheap knocks-offs you scoop from TJMaxx for a wedding — because honestly, when are you ever going to wear these things again?

As a generally impractical accessory in today’s world, the English aristocrat’s black velvet smoking slipper ought to have wound up in the ash heap of menswear history. The man who saved them from this fate was not Tom Ford, as legend goes, but Percy Steinhart, the founder and visionary behind Stubbs & Wootton who passed away at 76 last month.