Martha Stewart, who appeared to dress up as a homeless person for Halloween, responded on Sunday to a backlash over her costume, saying initially that she had not intended to offend anyone, and then in a second, more contrite statement, adding that she had “really screwed up.”
“My earlier statement didn’t go far enough,” Stewart posted on Instagram late Sunday. “I know many people are suffering economically. Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I am very sorry.”
On Saturday, Stewart, the 85-year-old entrepreneur, TV personality and media mogul who leveraged her homemaking skills to turn herself into an aspirational lifestyle brand, shared a now-deleted photo of herself on Instagram, In it, she wore ripped jeans, a torn sweater and a dirtied face. She held up a clipboard that read, “I Am Hungry Help Me!!” In the caption, she pointed her followers to her branded candle collection on the shopping network QVC, calling them “perfect for Halloween!!!”
The criticism that followed was sharp and fairly swift, accusing her of being out of touch, at a time of widening inequality and in an affordability crisis.
Some, though, suggested the reaction over a Halloween costume was overblown.
On Sunday, in a statement provided to NBC News and other media outlets, Stewart said she felt “distressed” by the response. She added that the costume had been “intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness” and noted that she had long donated to and supported charities that focused on the issue. For example, a representative said on Sunday in an email to The New York Times that last week, Stewart donated to God’s Love We Deliver, a nonprofit organization in New York that provides meals to those living with illness and homelessness.
She is not the first celebrity to try to glamorize poverty; the Dior designer John Galliano faced intense criticism in 2000 for a homeless couture collection.
Stewart built an empire out of branding herself as an Everywoman, as the writer Joan Didion once put it, and she was America’s first self-made female billionaire. But she also served months in prison and home detention in the early 2000s for lying about a stock sale. The experience was “life-altering and-life affirming,” she said back then.
It wasn’t until Sunday evening that Stewart issued an apology on Instagram. But that did little to quell anger from her followers, with many commenting that walking her choices back on social media was not enough.
The post Martha Stewart Apologizes for Homeless Halloween Costume appeared first on New York Times.
