Born: August 3, 1941
Martha Stewart began making the news during her years at Barnard College as a best-dressed and glamorous college girl and as part of the great Bermuda shorts affair …
A specially-appointed committee of Representative Assembly chose Martha Kostyra ’63 as Barnard’s candidate for Glamour Magazine’s “Ten Best-Dressed College Girls” contest. In choosing from among the students … the committee considered good taste in grooming and dressing, and the extracurricular activities of the contestants. The sign-up sheet was narrowed to ten candidates who were interviewed by the committee. In April Glamour will select the ten-best dressed college girls in the country. Barnard Bulletin, New York, March 16, 1961
Martha Kostrya is, of course, Martha Stewart (she married Andrew Stewart in July 1961 – they divorced in 1990). Was Kostyra one of Glamour’s eventual 10 winners? Of course, this is Martha Kostyra/Stewart we’re talking about. More to come on this, but first …
Stewart was part of the Barnard’s Bermuda Shorts Affair that got a lot of attention in the New York press and beyond …
The young ladies at Barnard College let it be known yesterday that they were plenty miffed at the request from the college president that they pass up such casual attire as shorts or slacks and wear skirts to classes and all other parts of the Columbus University campus. New York Daily News, April 29, 1960
An Associated Press photographer headed to campus to find and photograph the young ladies of Barnard wearing Bermuda shorts, which many did as part of an organized protest, and found Stewart. Here’s the photo, which ran in several papers around the country and included another student (on the left) and a Japanese woman visiting campus who dressed in a fashion that fit in with the new dress code …
Who won the Battle of Bermuda?
Never one to skirt the issue, the rosy-kneed girls at Barnard College have won the battle of Bermuda shorts. Word has come down from the top brass that shorts worn to class and library … will be okay if they are not too short, too bright, or, ahem, too tight. Poughkeepsie Journal, New York, September 7, 1960
While all this was going on, Stewart and the other best-dressed college ladies were feted by Glamour in New York for two weeks of “sight-seeing, meeting celebrities, visiting the mayor, and being photographed in new campus fashions for the college issue of Glamour magazine, according to a United Press International story …
“Work makes you a more interesting person to others,” was the consensus of the 10 … They listed such prerequisites as satisfaction, happiness, interest, challenge, and fulfillment ahead of money in importance in careers … Martha Kostyra, who wants to be an architect, spoke up. “I would ask though why a job didn’t pay what I thought it should. “It seems to me questionable why a baseball player should earn more than a scientist.” Miss Kostyra, 19, is a sophomore at Barnard College, New York. A native of Elm Place, Nutley, N.J., she plans to do graduate study in art before job hunting.” The Montreal Star, Canada, June 20, 1961
Stewart left Barnard soon after she married but later returned and graduated with degrees in history and architectural history. The Stewarts had one child, Alexis, born in 1965. Martha worked for a while as a stockbroker, while Andrew was a successful publishing executive. The couple bought and began restoring a big, old country home in Westport, Connecticut. Martha started a catering business in 1976 and began giving cooking and gardening talks, often from the kitchen of her home.
Martha Stewart hung the freshly-made fettucine on a wooden laundry rack and announced to the 60 women jammed into her restored country kitchen: “you always dry them at room temperature. The Bridgeport Post, Connecticut, July 29, 1976
The article also described her soon-to-be famous Turkey Hill home …
The 1805 farmhouse, located on Turkey Hill road, has been nearly totally restored by Martha and her husband, Andy, who with their 10-year-old daughter, Alexis, took possession about five years ago. On paper the Stewart’s timetable showed that they would have the house completely renovated in nine months. “Well, it’s five years, and we still have a lot to do,” Martha said. “The house was a total disaster and barely livable …”
Others took notice of Turkey Hill …
The 1810 Westport farmhouse of Andrew and Martha Stewart (he’s president of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., art book publishers and she runs a food store and catering service) is featured in the June issue of House and Garden magazine. “The Good Life, Country Style,” the magazine calls it and offers stunning color photographs of Martha making pasta in her kitchen, hoeing her homegrown vegetables and setting her table for a gourmet dinner for six. It also shows her stenciling her floors and painting a hall mural. Two secrets of her phenomenal energies and creativity, the magazine reveals, are (1) she and her husband are a super team and (2) she needs little sleep, maybe five hours. “I like to get up at 5:30 to garden. It’s so nice and cool then.” The Bridgeport Post, Connecticut, June 5, 1977
Stewart continued to build her catering business and brand.
Caterer Martha Stewart has a three-word formula for creating the memorable parties she regularly choreographs for clients that include assorted Rockefellers, Paul Newman, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum. “Lots, lights and colorful,” said the coltish blonde, who looks barely older than her 16-year-old daughter. Hartford Courant, Connecticut, July 21, 1982
Stewart’s first (of many) cookbooks was published in 1982.
Entertaining. It’s what Martha Stewart does best. Catering an intimate dinner for her neighbors, the Paul Newmans, or the Fall Annual Antiques Show benefit for the Museum of American Folk Art for 1,500, she equally competent and at ease.
Today the American hostess can cease to be awestruck and will avail herself of Stewart’s techniques straight from her first book called simply Entertaining (Crown, $35). Like the author, the book is straightforward and elegantly simple. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, December 11, 1982
The article went on to describe the emerging Stewart brand perfectly …
Born Martha Kostyra into a Polish family whose women loved to cook and to raise their own ingredients, Stewart carried her enjoyment of cooking into marriage. After modelling and a stint as a stockbroker (earning $130,000 a year), she and her husband, Andrew, moved to Westport, Conn., enabling her to indulge her love of gardening and cooking. Sandwiched between house restoration projects, she managed a food co-op and began what is now New York’s premier catering service … For her catering business, she employs six people full time, but can pull in as many as 50 if the affair warrants large numbers.
Stewart’s Entertaining cookbook helped her brand go national. Soon it would grow to include her Martha Stewart Living magazine and television show and she became as famous as Paul Newman and the assorted Rockefellers.
If you found this story interesting, you might like to read my From Unknown to Famous stories about Bruce Springsteen, Ernest Hemingway, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marilyn Monroe, Amelia Earhart, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Elvis, Little Stevie Wonder and Alex Trebek. Please subscribe to this blog and get alerts every time I post a new one (lots more are coming).
From Unknown To Famous 