Before there were Pinterest boards and Instagram reels, there was Martha Stewart. The homemaking icon elevated quotidian domestic tasks like cooking and gardening to aspirational levels, feeding a burgeoning demand for lifestyle advice through scores of her own made-from-scratch recipes, elaborately set tablescapes, and pristinely manicured grounds. She became the first American woman to build a billion-dollar company—one based on sharing knowledge of the domestic arts, no less. “She was the first person that saw the marketability of her personal life. Martha was the first influencer,” says her friend Lloyd Allen in the new Netflix documentary Martha.
Stewart honed the homemaking skills upon which her empire was built at a four-acre former onion farm dubbed Turkey Hill in Westport, Connecticut. In the span of nearly 30 years, Martha and her ex-husband Andy Stewart transformed the run-down spot into an estate teeming with fantastical gardens and dreamy ADUs. It was during her time at Turkey Hill that Martha launched the catering company that led to her first book deal. In 2000, she moved on from the home to a 153-acre farm in upstate New York, where she now spends most of her time.
After losing control of her company in the early aughts and serving a five-month stint in prison (for a highly publicized insider-trading-related conviction she maintains was unwarranted), Martha also lost millions of dollars and much of her influence. However, the prototypical domestic goddess regained most of her cultural relevancy over the past decade with aplomb; these days, many of her younger fans know her mainly as a savvy, sassy power player on social media, where her two million followers tune in daily to get the scoop on her lifestyle tastes. Last year, Martha graced the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which made her the brand’s most senior cover model, and this month she’s on track to release her 100th cookbook. As the career-spanning Netflix doc primes Martha for yet another cycle of media dominance, we’re taking a look back at some more intimate moments of the star in her element: at home.
