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STEWART, MARTHA 1941-

AUTHORITY ON ENTERTAINING

Authority on the Good Life

The 1980s were a decade of conservatism but also of materialism, if not excess. Yuppies climbed income brackets and social ladders, consumers sought out designer labels and exclusive products, and bumper stickers appeared proclaiming that whoever dies with the most toys wins. Catering to America's growing taste for the good life but injecting an element of breeding and good taste, Martha Stewart emerged during the decade as America's foremost authority on entertaining and decorating.

Early Experiences

Born Martha Kostyra in New Jersey, she began modeling in high school and learned gardening from her father, a salesman. Continuing to model while studying European history and architectural history at Barnard College, in 1960 she met Andrew Stewart, a student at Yale Law School. They married the following year. She continued to model, making as much as $35,000 a year. After the birth of their only child, Alexis, in 1965, Martha Stewart became a stockbroker with a small but successful Wall Street firm, where she remained until 1973. After a brief effort with a take-out food shop, she began working as a caterer—at first with a partner, then on her own as Martha Stewart, Inc.

Becoming Known West of the Hudson

By the mid 1980s Stewart's company was making a million dollars a year serving clients on the East Coast. She also wrote books, beginning with Entertaining in 1982 and including such titles as Martha Stewart's Quick Cook Menus, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Martha Stewart's Christmas. Combining her patrician good looks and next-door-neighbor approachability with a keen marketing sense, Stewart proceeded to build a one-person empire. In her books and television appearances she created impossibly perfect desserts and decorations, often from everyday materials, and made it seem as though anyone could do the same. Many believed her, as evidenced in the hundreds of women who signed up for her lectures and seminars, which often cost hundreds of dollars per person. Her house in Westport, Connecticut, became a mecca for admirers who wanted to emulate her intricate desserts, stylish homemade decorations, and impeccable gardening techniques.

The Empire Spreads Out

Following her 1987 divorce, after which she was a houseguest of writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and his wife, photographer Jill Krementz, Stewart expanded her empire with two ventures. In 1987 she entered into a business relationship with K-Mart, which began marketing Martha Stewart products such as linens and dishes. In 1990 she created a magazine, Martha Stewart Living, published by Time Warner. Such enterprises made Stewart the target of critics who ridiculed her relentless self-promotion and considered her attention to fine details of decorating and entertaining bordering on the anal retentive. Nonetheless, she remained popular among a wide spectrum of American women across the country into the 1990s.