Martha Stewart says she gets about $40,000 worth of clothes whenever she is invited to a fashion show, and she gets to keep them.
The 85-year-old shared this on the first episode of MasterClass’s new business podcast, Other People’s Business, released Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Host David Rogier, MasterClass’s founder and CEO, asked her about how brand deals have changed for lifestyle entrepreneurs, to which Stewart said it interests her “tremendously” how much has shifted. Influencers now get paid either in cash or in goods, she said.
She explained how the clothing deals work. Brands give her $40,000 worth of clothes so she can pick what she wants to wear to the show. “And you get to keep the clothes,” she said.
“That’s a lot of money,” Rogier replied. Stewart sat front row at the Carolina Herrera show at New York Fashion Week in February.
Stewart also shared her view on influencer culture. “You can be an influencer, but if you’re not making money at it, you’re not really an influencer,” she said. Her own rule has always been that if she works hard, she wants to be paid. “I have not really worked for nothing,” she said.
Rogier asked where people actually make their money. Stewart said everything has changed because of the internet, social media and the decline of monthly advertisers for TV shows and magazines.
She began building her business in the early 1980s with her 1982 book, Entertaining. She called her Kmart line, The Martha Stewart Everyday brand, which launched in 1997, her “first big money.”
