Lille Allen
A French oyster platter? Very Martha. Plane tickets to Madagascar for the holidays? Verrry Martha.
There’s more noise than ever on the homemaking side of social media, but there is still only one Martha Stewart. She is, in short, an icon of the arena — “mogul” seems too steely a word for her brand while “multi-hyphenate” undersells her areas of expertise, which range from corn jewelry-making to cod jigging. My own parasocial relationship with Stewart began in October of 2005, in the pages of a particularly memorable, dry ice-filled Martha Stewart Living Halloween issue. Stewart didn’t just set tables, she dressed them; she didn’t just buy seasonal wreaths, but bent the branches herself.
Stewart’s talents — as a cook, crafter, sewer, woodworker, cleaner, candlestick-maker, lover of Chow Chows, and more — solidified her place as the quintessential proto-lifestyle influencer, a role which she only continued to build upon, both pre- and post-Enron, with impressive cultural relevance. Lest we forget, Joan Didion penned a meaty New Yorker essay in 2000 that unpacked Stewart’s role as a pioneer of bundt cake-pilled ecommerce. “This is a billion-dollar company,” Didion writes, “the only real product of which, in other words, is Martha Stewart herself.”
Of course, there have been plenty of real Martha Stewart products, from copper saucepans to striped pajama sets. (A few years ago, I wouldn’t shut up about the complex flavor profile of her pumpkin spice CBD gummies to anyone who would listen.) And even when I’m not consuming or using a specifically Martha Stewart brand product, her aesthetic — think, your most Nancy Meyers-esque aunt from Connecticut with a touch of Lee Radziwill eccentricity — remains omnipresent in my hosting brain, reminding me to reach for beeswax candles over paraffin, or to establish a separate drink station at a dinner party.
As Eater reminisces on Stewart’s legacy during Martha Week, we have rounded up a list of products to help you channel your inner Martha, whether you have a cocktail party to host or a hankering for a new set of dishes to inspire you.
