The Man Who Made Slippers for Lady Gaga Left Behind a $3.9 Million Connecticut Mansion

The man who convinced the world to take velvet slippers seriously died last October. Now the Connecticut home he personally designed and renovated is on the market, asking $3.9 million.

It sits at 148 North Street in Litchfield, quiet and Federal-style, built in 1874. Percy Steinhart bought it, gutted it, and made every design choice himself. Now it belongs to whoever shows up next.

That is the kind of detail that gets lost when real estate listings hit the news. The price is easy to write about. The person behind it rarely is.

From Havana to Palm Beach, With a Detour Through Spain

Percy Steinhart was not supposed to be in fashion. He was born in Havana, Cuba, on March 24, 1949, studied business at Georgetown University, and landed an executive role at Citicorp in New York. Suits and spreadsheets, not velvet and embroidery.

A friend pulled him toward Unisa, a Spanish shoe company. He took the detour. In Spain, he found a factory that could make the kind of velvet slipper he had quietly admired since his Edwardian-era obsession kicked in.

He took it seriously when no one else did. Back in Palm Beach, with a few hundred pairs in an apartment and a name borrowed from two 18th-century English painters, George Stubbs and John Wootton, he launched Stubbs and Wootton in 1993.

He originally wanted to name it Holden and Caulfield, after the Salinger character. His lawyer said no. The world got a better name.

The Brand That Refused to Stay in the Drawing Room

The idea was simple and slightly absurd: make the velvet slipper something people actually wore. Not just with a tuxedo. With jeans. With shorts. With everything.

It worked. Lady Gaga wore them. Anne Hathaway wore them. The former king of Spain wore them. Stubbs and Wootton became Palm Beach’s slipper first, then New York’s, then a brand with stores in the Hamptons, Greenwich, and internationally.

Percy was the first to develop the needlepoint slipper, still manufactured in Belgium today. He had a very Percy way of putting it: “We didn’t invent the velvet slipper. We just gave it new life and some whimsy.”

By the time he died on October 19, 2025, the brand had been running for over 30 years. His Connecticut estate is now listed through Heather Croner and Patricia McNamee at William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, as reported by CTInsider, asking $3.9 million.

The Litchfield Estate, Built in His Own Image

The property is not just a historic house. It is the last interior Percy ever worked on himself.

He renovated the 1874 Federal-style home completely, making every design choice from the ground up. Bold, saturated paint on the walls. Fireplaces in multiple rooms. A library that opens directly into a garden room. A dining room with a corner fireplace and double exposures.

The numbers: 6,641 square feet in the main house, 7 bedrooms, 5.5 baths. Nearly 4 acres that back up to a land trust, meaning no future development next door.

A pool house and carriage house included. Three structures on one property at this price is not common in this area.

Percy once said in an interview: “I have a house in Litchfield and noticed more and more people are wearing our slippers in the Northwest part of the state.” He chose this town deliberately. The house reflects that.

Not every celebrity-linked property sells on name alone. Nicholas Hoult watched his Hollywood Hills home sit unsold for over a year before finally taking a financial hit to close it, a reminder that story and price still have to meet the market.

If you track stories like this as they happen, there is a WhatsApp channel that covers luxury estate news and market moves before most outlets catch up. Worth keeping in your pocket.

Why This Matters

This is not just a designer’s estate going to market. It sits inside something bigger.

The global luxury footwear market was valued at over $20 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 5% through 2034, according to Global Market Insights.

Percy Steinhart helped build the taste that feeds that market. He was doing it before the numbers looked like this.

Stubbs and Wootton collaborated with The Met Museum. The brand outlasted every trend that was supposed to kill it.

And the home he shaped room by room, in a small Connecticut town he loved, is now sitting on a market where median home prices in Litchfield, CT rose roughly 57% year over year as of late 2025.

Lindsey Vonn slashed another $255K from her Beverly Hills mansion just three weeks after relisting it, and Josh Brolin listed his $5 million Atlanta estate for reasons that had nothing to do with the house itself.

Behind every major listing, there is always a bigger story running underneath.

The buyer of 148 North Street is not just buying a Federal house in Connecticut. They are buying Percy’s last room.

Key Takeaways

• Percy Steinhart, founder of Stubbs and Wootton, died October 19, 2025, at 76
• He was born in Havana, Cuba, and launched the brand from Palm Beach in 1993 after a career in banking
• His estate at 148 North Street, Litchfield, CT is listed at $3.9 million
• The 1874 Federal property spans 3.93 acres with a 6,641 sq ft main house plus a pool house and carriage house
• Steinhart personally renovated and designed the home himself
• Listing agents are Heather Croner and Patricia McNamee at William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty
• The buyer’s identity has not been disclosed

What do you think should happen to a creative person’s home once they are gone? Should it stay exactly as they left it, or does the new owner have every right to start fresh? Drop your take in the comments. Genuinely curious what people think about this one.

Wrapping Up

Percy Steinhart spent over 30 years insisting that a simple object could carry a real point of view. His slippers proved it. His home in Litchfield makes the same argument, quietly, in every room.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. All details are based on publicly available reports and listing data at the time of publication.