lady of the house: martha stewart
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7/28/2019 Lady of the House: Martha Stewart
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Mu.,hu Stewart is roll-
ing in the dough-both liter-
ally and figuratively. The
new guru of do-it-from-
scratch, traditional home
entertaining has crafteda multimillion-dollar
book/vide olmagazinel
consulting empire with all
the elegance and apparent
ease with which she spins
sugar-and all the iron-
headed determination of
Attila the Hun.
Lady o:fthe FlouseWITH YAI{KEE II{GENUITY, MARTHA STEWART
HAS MADE HER FIIRTUI{E AS A VAI{KEE INGENUE
By Frank Lovece
More than anyone else,
Stewart has tapped into the
post-ei ghties stay-at-home
ethos, the so-called "co-
cooning" that is affecting
everything from restaurant
prices to the upward jump in
garden tool sales.
As Stewart, 48-going-on-
38, observes, "In the next I0
years, we're going to get
back to do-it-yourself. Look
at women who have gone out
to work. Now they're trying
to work shorter hours, lrying
to get home to see their kids,
saying,'Maybe I really
should spend more time at
home and be more entrepre-
neurial. "
Stewart should know.
62 TRUMP'S JUNEl99O
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7/28/2019 Lady of the House: Martha Stewart
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With thecasual ele-
gance of a model,which she once was,
and the turbo-charged
mind of a stock-bro-
ker, which she also
once was, Martha Ste-
wart has made herself
Martha Stewart Inc.
Her eight books have
grossed $70 million in
the last eight years.She's also the star of
four how-to videos that
have sold almost50,000 copies (the
first came out infgBB). The HolidayEntertaining WithMarthq. Stewart spe-
cial she, made for pub-
lic television is regu-
larly repeated. And
now the giant of maga-
PAY DIRT
Martha Stewar(s Gardening, scheduled for a fall 1990 release, could
be the author's biggest book yet, considering the current ctaze lor
designer trowels and weeders.
According to Bruce Butterfield, research director of the National
Gardening Association in Burlington, Vermont, 75 percent of U.S.
households did some sort of gardening last year and spent $16.3
billion on lawn and garden products, compared with $12 billionin 1985.
other onhousekeep-
ing; entertaining forchildren's parties; re-
storing an old New En-
gland farmhouse (the
process of which un-
folded in a recent se-
ries of commercials for
K mart, which helped
subsidize the work);
and a novel-a semi_
autobiographicalGothic romance.
"Thebabyboomgenerationhasbecomethemostimportantlawn She is also whatandgardenconsumers,"saysButterfield,"andtheirimpactisproba- Newsweek calls a
bfygoingtobefeltforthenextl0years." "pseudoguru" to a
Stewart isn't a horticulturist, which is precisely why her editor, growing number oflsolde Motley, thinks the new book will inspire readers to dig in the women seeking fulfill-dirt. "Martha's a real person who has created an incredible suburban ment through the ret-garden all by herself -itt her real passion," says Motley. The book, reNorman Rockwellfilled with color photographs all shot in Stewart's own Westport vision that Stewartgarden (see abovel, is a month-by-month guide to raising earthly pushes. "Mothers and
delights-fromlettucetodamaskroses. -L.G. fathers have forgotten
to teach their children
zine publishing, Time-Warner, has who doesn't hold a special affection howtoirontheirshirtsoruseascrew-
expressedinterestinherconceptofa for soups." And her fans, shall we driver," she laments this day in her
monthly on home entertaining, with say, eat it up. cozy library. "'We've forgotten how to
Stewartaseditor-in-chief. Stewart's perfect, wifely counte- sit down and have dinner with our
She is, from all outward appear- nance beams from the covers of her children and how to have a conversa-
ances, a Barbie doll with brains. Yet eight lavish recipe and event-plan- tion." Stewart means to change all
Martha Stewart is not a WASP. Forget ning tomes, which have sold more that, sometimes even referring to her
the sprawling Federalist Colonial than 2.5 million copies since the audience as "my followers" and to
home in old Westport, Connecticut. first, Entertaining,was published in what she does as a "missisn"-41-Forget the blond hair and the Barnard 1982. And that's only the tip of the though, she quickly notes, ool
Collegebackground. Forgeteventhe iceberg lettuce. For a reported $5 wouldn't dieforthatmission."
"immaculately WASPy" tag applied million, Stewart is the five-year And there any similarity to Meryl
to her by certain members of the "life-style consultant" for K mart, Streep in She-DniI ends: Stewart is
press. Stewart revels in the fact that the middlebrow but highly success- not pink and frilly. Yet her cook-
shegrewupPolishinruralNewJer- ful department-store chain. She booksdoofferaromanticfantasyofa
sey, where she learned to hunt, fish, gives occasional sold-out seminars lifestyle that largely exists only in
and pluck chickens. Her books and and lectures on home entertaining. movies and among a small, highly
videos spin recipes for croquem- She's also the publisher of a quar- traditional Social Registergroup.
bouche and roasted kielbasa with terly newsletter on the same subject; Her influence is such that Sepp
equal ease, along with folksy ic- and she compiles classical music Leaf Products, a Manhattan mer-counts of her family life and also dinner albums for CBS Records. chant of edible gold leaf, saw a run on
choice social and culinary observa- She's currently working on five that bit of exotica after Stewart rec-
tions, such as, "[ don't know anyone books at once: One on gardening; an- ommended it in a recipe. Her influ-
64 T R u M p's JUNE 1990 ' (coNrlNUED ox pe<;e 98)
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Martha Stewart(corurmuro rnom eece 64)
ence is such, too, that she has set offa dismissive backlash from food crit-ics like the NewYorkTimes's Marian
Burros.
Some of this Stewart brings on her-self with her forthrightness and her
tendency to speak in extremes-es-pecially when the topic is Martha
Stewart. "No one is more animal-
righteous than I am," she declares.
"No one!" But then she adds plain-
tively, "I wear only mink coats from
minks raised for fur-I'm not wear-ing fox that's been trapped in the
wild. So I feel," she insists, oovery,
very secure in my own actions."And there you have Martha Ste-
wart. She genuinely believes she's on
the side ofthe angels
The eight-acre estate in Connecticut
is surrounded by a low stone fence,
an apt metaphor for the mistress of
the house. On first encounter, in the
fabled kitchen she celebrates in her
books, Stewart is contained, formi-
dable, briskly no-nonsense. Yet once
that periphery is breached, she is as
hospitable and open as her home.
Bathed in cloudy sunlight in a libraryfilled literally to the rafters, Stewart
is ready to talk.Stewart's homey view of things
comes from her upbringing in Nutley,
New Jersey, where she was the oldest
daughterin Edward and Martha Kos-
tyra's brood of three boys and three
girls. Her father was a physical edu-cation teacher and later a pharma-
ceuticals salesman. The kids helped
to stretch the paycheck by hunting
for food and trapping beavers to sell
the pelts. Martha, already one of to-
morrow's overachievers, learned not
only how to sew and cook, but how to
couraged. I was not told I couldn't go
to Barnard because it was too expen-sive. My father said. 'Of course you
can go-get a scholarship.' So I got
three scholarships," she boasts,ooand
worked full time while studying."Of course, the "work" was model-
ing, a profession she had entered at
age 13. Doing print and TV ads forLifebuoy soap, Clairol hair-coloring,
and otherproducts in the early 1960s,
she earned as much as $35,000 a
year-a queenly sumat the time.During college, she met and mar-
ried Andrew Stewart, a law student at
Yale who wenl on to become presi-dent of the publishing house HarryN. Abrams, Inc., and co-founder ofanother, Stewart Tabor & Chang.
Upon graduation, Martha became a
highly successful stockbroker at
what is now Monness, Crespi, Hardt
& Co., but she left in 1973, after a
decade in the profession.
By then, the Stewarts had bought
and begun renovating the statelylB3B Westport house in which Mar-tha now lives. She stayed busy orga-
nizing a local food cooperative and,
later, catering. Applying to cateringthe same dizzyingsense of relentless
achievement she had applied to ev-
erything else in herlife, Stewart soon
became caterer to the stars.
One of them was Alan Mirken,then chairman of Crown Publishers,
and a friend of her husband's. oolwas
doing a party," Martha recalls, o'andhe came up to me and said, 'Do you
want to do a book for me?' I said,lsure'-I'd
been thinking of doing a
book. He said, 'Well, write me an
outline right away.'It took me a few
months," she says, chuckling. "Imean, I was busy!" The outline grew
7/28/2019 Lady of the House: Martha Stewart
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knew she wanted an exPensive, full-
color creation the size of a Christmas
turkey.o'Oh, they had heart attacks
about it," she remembers with a
cackle-a rather endearing one,
since her patrician side doesn't looklike the type to guffaw and snort, but
her farmgirl side does it anyway'
Martha Stewart
'oThey first offered me 50 percent
color, 50 percent black-and-white
pictures. I said, oNo, food doesn't
look any good in black and white. It
has Lo be color-and every single
recipe has to be illustrated.'Iwantedit to be a big book," she says. And so
it was: 310 pages, $40, and a N en Yorlt
Times best-seller now in its 21st
printing.
'oThey knew I knew what I was
talking about. And Andy helPed,"
she adds. "He helped a lot."
He does not, however, helP anYlonger, and there's the irony in her
career: Since 1987, the maven of
home and hearth has been seParated
from her husband-because, she
surmises, of her rampant perfection-
ism. And in an odd way, the circum-
stance humanizes her, momentarilY
takes the Inc. from her veins. Curl-
ing up with one of her five cats, she
sighsand says,
ool don't wanna be a
single person. But that's the way it's
turned out."
fo Stewart, wasting time is a
I mortal sin. She doesn't even go
gardening without a bottom line. "Ican go to my garden in the morning
and plant, and feel that I am accom-
plishing something for my monetary
survival," she says, flashing back to
her just-get-by youth, 'obecause I'm
writing now about gardening. I'mvery fortunate," she muses, "to have
a job that rs my lifestyle."
Stewart admits that not all her
readers are at home on the range.o'So
many people admit to me that theY
read my books in bed, that theY keeP
them on the coffee table, that theY
just look at the pictures. But I don t
care ifpeople are doing things step-
by-step from my books," she saYs.ool
care that they're getting ideas and
inspiration and good feelings from
my books."
But it's an appealing fantasY that
Stewart sells. Even if the two- and
sometimes three-job families in this
country don't have the time or energy
each evening to PfePare one of Ste-
wart's "quick-cook meals" that take
an hour, Stewart touches a universalwistfulness for a comfortable, ele-
gant life. And it's hard to argue with
herpremise. w
Frank Lwece is a sYndicated colum-
nistandauthor'
"We're booked at the QualitY Hotel
Capitol Hill inWashington, Mr.s. Wharton.'It's
excellent . . . a strategic location'"
I A block from the Capitol, a I Free indoor parking,
brief walk to America's-greatest in-room HBO, rooftop pool
museumsandtheMetrorailsubway I Enioyable Coach & Parlor| 341 spacious tuest rooms Restaurant and Whistlestop
I HandsomeandflexiblemeetingLounge just off-lobby
and banquet facilities for 10 to 550
It's simple, really. We put you up in ve.ry pleasant
comfort thit keeps ihe beln-iounters quite comfort-
able with your exPense rePorts.
QUALITY HOTELCAPITOL HILLWe simbLa Lilp our gtests
415 New lersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 2OOO I
(2O2) 638-1616 o FAX (ZO2) 63A-0707 o Toll-Free (8OO) 228-5t5t
IllO TRUMP'S JUNEI99O
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lV|HE POWUE OFNRAGAZTTHE
DY(|
f i-JER CORRIDORMartha Stewart
weare a eilk ouil by
Calvin Klein;BergdorfGoodmanNYC. Stylisrs Paula
Fox/Viaages.
Hair: David
Ieonard forThom Thmblyn.
Makeup: Catherin
Mahlin forFrederic Fekkai.
Photogpaphed forTRUMP'S by
Ken Nahoum.
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inside couple by Francis Wilkinson
ON THE COVEF.I 62Lady of the House
A Yankee ingenue with Yankee ingenuity, Martha Stewart has spun sugar
into gold. We visit her in the Connecticut home that has made her a
household name by Frank Loaece
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