In Search of a Martha Stewart Replacement

Wanted: Domestic lifestyle advice from a telegenic personality. Magazine, line of retail products and a squeaky-clean stock portfolio a plus.

With Martha Stewart hamstrung by an investigation into alleged insider trading, branding experts say the door is open for a flock of tastemakers to push their own mass-market cooking, decorating and gardening advice.

At the head of the pack are New York-based restaurateur B. Smith and two British imports, “domestic goddess” cooking guru Nigella Lawson and interior decorator to the stars Anne McKevitt.

But despite Stewart’s difficulties, including the possibility of criminal charges, the challengers may find it difficult to displace her as top dog.

“Martha rose up in a vacuum,” said David Martin, president of brand consultant Interbrand. “It may well be that there’s not one new home run star but a lot of top players.”

McKevitt has in the works an interior decorating television show and a line of paints, crafts and linens to be sold through a yet-unnamed retailer. Her show will feature some of her celebrity friends and clients, who include Paul McCartney, Catherine Deneuve and Elton John. But don’t look for cooking advice: The strict vegetarian, McKevitt, confesses that she can’t cook to save her life.

“I want the show to be sort of beyond the red carpet for celebrities,” she said. “I’ll ask them ‘What’s in your fridge?’ What’s under your bed?” ’

A red head with a Scottish burr, McKevitt has even been drawing attention from within Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., where Stewart is chairwoman and chief executive.

McKevitt denied in a written statement that her company had hired any Martha Stewart executives, but cryptically added that “we have recently been approached by an individual seeking employment and currently having living brand experience in the home/lifestyle area.”

A spokesman for Martha Stewart Living declined to comment.

Facing investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department into her sale of stock in ImClone Systems, Stewart has lowered her profile in recent months. Her company has said the scandal is hurting nearly every aspect of its business.

That could represent an opportunity for up-and-coming rivals such as B. Smith, a former model who owns three restaurants, has a syndicated television show and touts a Bed Bath & Beyond line of linens, shower curtains and other housewares that are comparable to Stewart’s popular line at the retailer Kmart, which filed for bankruptcy protection this year.

“The target audience has always been women, and B. Smith can appeal to women from East Hampton to East St. Louis,” said Dan Gasby, her husband and business partner. “She’ll catch Martha. People have always called B. Smith the African American Martha Stewart, but one day in the near future they’ll say ‘Martha does what B. does.” ’

Carol Parish, a partner at the brand consulting firm Lippincott & Margulies, likes the chances of Nigella Lawson, who has been increasingly visible in the U.S. with a cookbook, television show and guest cooking column in the New York Times.

“She has the classic good looks and upper-scale demeanor.... She’s promoting herself as a domestic goddess and saying it’s all about happiness, not total perfection,” Parish said.

The well-oiled brand-building machinery at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia could also boost one of the company’s own staffers to stardom, including Creative Director Gael Towey or Chief Operating Officer Sharon Patrick.