Living: Steven Stolman Invents + Reinvents Palm Beach Style

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We recently caught up with designer, writer, tastemaker and Palm Beach favorite, Steven Stolman, for a behind the scenes look into his beauty, fashion, social, style and weekend trends lately. In case you don’t know, Steven is the well-known designer who helped revamp cult brands like Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rogers, as well as create his own line of shift dresses and knee-length skirts from upholstery fabrics with shops in Southampton, New York, Palm Beach, Nantucket, Naples, Beverly Hills and East Hampton. Today he makes the perfect president of the popular fabric, trim, wallpaper and furnishing company, Scalamandré, and is still as stylish as ever. Read on to see why he calls himself a basic guy, who his icons are and where you can find him on the weekend!
1. What are your summer beauty essentials?
I have a hard time applying the word “beauty” to anything connected with me. I’m a pretty basic kinda guy, probably to a fault. I love Kiehl’s bath products because they smell nice and look good in our newly remodeled bathroom. I have been wearing the same cologne, Czech & Speake “88” for about 30 years. I don’t wear enough sunscreen and when I do it’s SPF 30 spray from Publix. Hence, I love that green aloe gel for a sunburn, especially when it’s been left in the fridge and gets icy cold. And the older I get, the more Lubriderm I seem to be using, but mostly in the winter up north.

2. Who is your favorite Palm Beach icon?
My favorite icon? It always has and always will be our former mayor Lesly Smith. She embodies all that is extraordinary about Palm Beach. Pauline Pitt runs a close second, and if she ever ran for public office, it would be a tie. These two women represent the heart and soul of the real Palm Beach.

3. What are your go-tos for summer entertaining? 
Social? I’m a serial entertainer and my other half Rich and I love having people over… Either for last minute “pickup” cocktail parties or casual dinners. I have been known to get off a plane at 6 on a Friday and have people over at 7. It’s how we roll… Ironic because we live in the smallest place out of all of our friends yet entertain the most. In the summer, we tend to start things a bit later as our living room faces west and gets blasted by the sun.

4. What is your idea of Palm Beach style?
I’ve said it so much that I’m considering getting it tattooed somewhere… No Socks, EVER! The rest makes up what I call the Palm Beach Drag… It’s a cliche but totally authentic. Stubbs & Wootton velvet slippers (especially now with the Scalamandré zebra!), white jeans or my great new orange pants from Bonobos and a Brooks Brothers white Oxford cloth button down. And yes, the ubiquitous navy blue blazer. I don’t leave home without it… It’s like a security blanket.

5. Where can we find you in Palm Beach on the weekend?
Weekends? After the gym, breakfast at Howleys or the Pelican, the pool deck of The Reef, family dinners, maybe an indulgent dinner in the bar at Chez Jean Pierre… I’m really a creature of habit. We also love, love, love Flanigan’s… So much so that we bought stock in it!

Thank you, Steven! 

Image credit: Steven Stolman
Categories: behind the scenes | living

Comments (1)

  1. Follow Steven Stolman on Twitter!!
    @sstolman

    Comment by Anonymous on July 16, 2013 at 1:50 pm