Lifestyle icon Martha Stewart comes to Nantucket by Design.

Interview by Bruce A. Percelay
Photos Courtesy of Martha Stewart

For nearly half a century, the words “lifestyle” and Martha Stewart have been inseparable. Stewart, the first female self-made billionaire in the country, made a career off her own image, launching Martha Stewart Living in 1990, and a weekly television show in 1993. She has also taken an untraditional approach to business, selling her product line at Kmart, and more recently teaming up with hip-hop star Snoop Dogg in one of Hollywood’s most unlikely friendships.

Throughout her career, Stewart has visited Nantucket dozens of times, purchasing lanterns and lightship baskets, visiting auctions and at one point holding a company retreat on the island. Stewart returns to Nantucket this July to deliver the keynote address at the Nantucket Historical Association’s annual event, Nantucket By Design. N Magazine Publisher Bruce Percelay caught up with Stewart ahead of her talk to discuss her career and her time on Nantucket.

N Magazine: Your persona and products are so Nantucket. Have you had much exposure to the island?

Stewart: I’ve been coming to the island for 60 years, never as a resident, but as a visitor. I visited quite a few of the most beautiful homes on Nantucket, attended auctions, learned about the history of the island, and I keep trying to make an annual pilgrimage to the island. We even had an annual meeting of my company on Nantucket one year.

N Magazine: Speaking of Nantucket design, the trend has become to preserve the exterior but renovate the interior into something contemporary. Does that evolution bother you?

Stewart: No. That’s happening everywhere, and it really has to do with the lifestyle of today. People don’t want clutter. They want air conditioning. They want technology. Every house has to be wireless, and you have to adapt to that wireless connection, so you can’t have nooks and crannies. It all has to do with the aesthetic of living with modern technology.

N Magazine: Has Nantucket inspired your aesthetic?

Stewart: I did buy my lanterns on Nantucket for my farm. I love the shapely houses and the simplicity of the Nantucket salt boxes: two-stories, brick chimney. I have always lived in a 19th century house. Though, I do not like low ceilings, and that’s a problem for a lot of Nantucket houses. You want higher ceilings, clean walls to hang paintings that aren’t necessarily little ship paintings.

N Magazine: How have you been able to preserve your lifestyle brand without diluting it, especially if you branch out into so many areas, like selling your line at Kmart?

Stewart: Kmart was one of my most successful initiatives. In my house in Maine—which is a very fancy house in Seal Harbor—all of the towels are from Kmart. That’s from 30 years ago, and I still use them. They’re in perfect shape. The beautiful duvet covers, the embroidered towels in the guest house are all from Kmart. I changed the perception of Kmart’s quality and customer base. When we made that product, my friends bought it and that’s my demographic.

N Magazine: Was it a risk to potentially lower the perception of your brand?

Stewart: I didn’t know. I was a total novice. One of the big things I did that I was really proud of was changing the colors of their towels, which were maroon and dark green and navy blue. They said it was because poor people don’t wash them. I said, ‘Let’s change that right now because I don’t believe that.’ So we made towels in pastel colors, and beautiful shades of aqua and green. Guess what the best-selling towel was. White. They were totally wrong and totally misreading their customers. And at that time, their customers were watching television, and watching programs with rich families, so I gave it to them.

N Magazine: When you launched your business, television had a huge impact. If you were to start your company today in the digital world, how would it be different?

Stewart: In those days, television was the whole thing. If you didn’t have a daily show on television, you were not going to sell. I had a daily one-hour television show. That’s where my commercials were showing. Look at some of my commercials with Kmart and they’re some of the best commercials you’ve ever seen. There are no commercials like that now.

N Magazine: Have you ever traded thoughts or ideas with Ralph Lauren?

Stewart: No, our relationship is just social, but he knows what I’m doing and I know what he’s doing. I wore his clothes to the Olympics last summer in Paris. I know his children very well. Of course, everybody knows what Ralph Lauren’s doing. He’s so visible and admired. He is American style.

N Magazine: Are you American style?

Stewart: I am totally American style, but I am much more mass-oriented, and he has always been selling to a more financially wealthy demographic.

N Magazine: You were the first female self-made billionaire in America. Is it easier to make it as a woman in business today than when you started?

Stewart: If you look at the board members at major companies, it’s a lot more women that you’ve never heard about who are sitting on those boards. Women have made great strides in management and running American companies successfully. There’s still room for improvement. Women are entrepreneurs and celebrities and can make a billion dollars. Kylie Jenner is almost a billionaire at only 27 years old. These are go-getter girls, and yet they’re in the minority. They’re extremely active on social media. They are out there. But there are still only a small number you hear about.

N Magazine: Can you explain your relationship with Snoop Dogg?

Stewart: Both Snoop and I saw the opportunity to increase our demographics tenfold by our association. It’s a nice dynamic. Who would have thought 10 years ago that he would ever know who I am. And now so many more people know who I am and that’s because of Snoop Dogg. It wasn’t written down and planned. It was just my gut feeling that it was the right thing to do at the right time, and it worked.

N Magazine: If you were 30 years old and starting your business, would you repeat what you’ve done, or would you pursue different avenues knowing what you know today?

Stewart: Well, I think about that sometimes. I pursued a very conservative path. I started out on Wall Street. It broke down some barriers, but it was very conservative. I was in the banking world. I had to know about companies, and know what a good stock was. Then I left that for various reasons, mainly to spend more time at home and spend more time with my child. I moved to the country and started a catering business. It was conservative. I knew how to cook and could make a good business. In my day, I talked to the press. I did not advertise until I had my magazine in1990. That was the first time I had ever advertised the Martha brand, and before that, Kmart had advertised it in their television commercials. But now, you don’t have to advertise, you just have to post online. Look at the “tradwife” movement (traditional wife). Not only am I the original influencer; I’m the original “tradwife.” I raised my own kid, I had my own goat in the backyard in Connecticut—and I could still be educated and still write books. I’m very proud of that. I’m proud that I did it first.

N Magazine: Why did you never buy a house on Nantucket?

Stewart: Access has to be a little easier. I bought a house instead in East Hampton, and even that was a stretch for me because I don’t like spending time in cars. I loved Nantucket. I visited Martha’s Vineyard a lot and had carpenters from Martha’s Vineyard building my kitchen in Westport, Connecticut. I looked at both islands very carefully, and I liked both islands very much. But I didn’t want to be fogged in or fogged out. I wanted to be able to get there and not have to deal with little planes all the time. It was a life choice not to be out there. I love visiting, and visiting all the time. I love the basket makers on Nantucket, and I love going to the auctions there and finding the old books and other things that were part of the heritage of Nantucket. I go fishing there, too. I always go out for striped bass on a little boat.