Culture
Martha Stewart Apologizes for Homeless Costume Made With $380 Imported Dirt
The jeans were distressed in Milan, the beanie was cashmere, and the dirt came from France in a jar with a linen bow.
KATONAH, NY — Martha Stewart apologized Sunday for dressing as a homeless person for Halloween, hours before receipts surfaced showing that the dirt on her face was a $380 jar of sifted Burgundy topsoil, applied in three thin coats and left to set overnight.
The costume, which Stewart, 85, posted to Instagram on Oct. 31 in a carousel that also promoted her candle line, took 14 hours and a staff of six to assemble, according to a 31-item supply list obtained by The Prickled Herald.
“The jeans were hand-distressed by a man in Milan who normally does saddles,” said Perpetua Glenwhistle, 47, a Westchester County stylist who worked on the project. “The beanie is cashmere. We roughed it up with an antique cheese grater for about forty minutes.”
The cardboard sign, which read “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!”, was cut from the lid of a 1962 department-store hatbox. Glenwhistle said Stewart hand-lettered it herself, then had the exclamation points redone twice “so they’d look less confident.”
Stewart’s first statement said she was “distressed” that the costume, which was “intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness,” had offended people. Hours later she posted a second one. “It’s hard to admit when you’ve really screwed up,” she wrote, calling the costume “insensitive and not funny.”
A 22-step tutorial scheduled for her website Monday has been pulled, along with a printable sign template and a matching tablescape.
“Honestly, the dirt was the easy part,” Glenwhistle said. “Martha just knows dirt. She can tell you which field it came from by smell.”
When this reporter left the farm, two assistants were spooning the leftover topsoil back into its jar for return shipping to France.
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