Martha Stewart Defends Homeless Halloween Costume in Just Jared’s Instagram Comments, Indya Moore Reacts to Her Statement
Martha Stewart is defending her controversial Halloween costume.
On Saturday (October 31), the 85-year-old businesswoman and TV personality took to social media to share a photo of herself dressed as a homeless person, with dirt on her face and wearing ripped up clothes.
She’s also holding a clipboard that has “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!” written across it. After facing intense criticism, she deleted the photo and then released a statement regarding her intention behind the costume.
Martha Stewart defends her costume on Just Jared’s Instagram
Then on our Instagram post on the topic, Martha doubled down on defending her costume.
“My costume was designed to bring the homeless and the hungry to everyone’s mind and boy it certainly did!!!” she wrote. “But not in the correct way, because I did not explain it and I am so sorry I care and I support causes who care. Do all of you???”
Indya Moore weighs in on the controversy
Pose star Indya Moore also commented on Just Jared‘s Instagram post about Martha‘s costume and explained why Halloween isn’t the time to “dress up as group who are in crisis.”
“We all make mistakes. I certainly do,” Indya began. “I try my best to correct them, not just with explanations but with more active support around the actual issue I may be contributing to. But this is a really tough one for me: Halloween has never been a time when people dress up as a demographic in need to raise awareness for them. Halloween is caricature: monsters, villains, idols. People do not dress up as groups who are in crisis. This is why your excuse is not believable for so many people. It actually seems like you’re using the anger of people who have actually been hungry as proof your costume worked.”
Indya then went on to point out that it doesn’t seem like Martha is actually apologizing for wearing the costume.
“It also seems like you apologizing for not writing a caption and our subsequent failure to understand the outfit- not because you wore it,” Indya wrote. “‘I care and I support causes who care.’ Which ones because You and your friends alone could probably end hunger across your entire state if you wanted to. A rich woman dressing up as a hungry, homeless person brings more awareness to how out of touch and apathetic wealth makes people than it does motivate people to empathize and activate.. If you were serious about poverty, you’d use your platform to back policies that tax the rich, put free food in front of people who are hungry and homeless, and provide free healthcare and education. ‘I support causes’ is not a great response to people asking you to show your work.”
“‘Do all of you???”‘ Most of the people following you are not wealthy. They are far closer to poverty than you are,” she continued. “So when they question the intentions of a wealthy white woman wearing poverty as a costume, that is a fair question. Flipping it back on them is passive-aggressive and insulting. An apology that ends in an interrogation of people you offended isn’t an apology, its a manipulative counterattack. You turned a question about your judgment into an inquiry of your followers loyalty.”
“Given how the wealthy treat the hungry and homeless in this country, abandoning them, shaming them, fear-mongering about them, you should have known this would offend a lot of people,” Indya concluded.
Posted To:2026 Halloween Halloween Indya Moore Martha Stewart
