Martha Stewart Says She Misses the Hamptons at FGI Gala Honoring Dennis Basso

“I miss the Hamptons,” revealed Martha Stewart. “I came back once this summer.”

This tidbit was dropped on the red carpet of the Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars in NYC on Tuesday, October 17. The Plaza Hotel event packed in over 300 elegantly attired designers, artists, manufacturers and fans.

Stewart, who sold her East Hampton home for a tidy sum of $16.5 million in 2021, was there to present a Lifetime Achievement Award to another part-time Hamptonite.

“I am feeling so fashionable tonight. I’m wearing somebody called Dennis Basso,” she said with a chuckle.

Basso, standing right next to her, also seemed amused.

“We both lived in New Jersey,” she added.

Where or when didn’t come up. The pair was busy chatting up media and well-wishers. Basso was otherwise taking the night seriously.

“Fashion is something that comes from within,” he told me. “You feel or you don’t feel it.”

This crowd was clearly in the former category.

Honorees Whoopi Goldberg and Marc Anthony seemed humbled by all the attention.

Sag Harbor’s Candace Bushnell says fashion — as it is for her Sex in the City doppelganger Sarah Jessica Parker‘s Carrie Bradshaw — is about “a basic way of humans expressing themselves.”

I can almost see that being typed on a computer screen.

FGI founder Maryanne Grisz is more practical. “Fashion is part commerce, part expression,” she tells me.

Besides former Hamptonite Stewart and current Water Mill man Basso, other East Enders in attendance included Southampton philanthropist Jean Shafiroff, journalist Tracy Snyder and designer Elie Tahari who said, kinda like Yoda, “The meaning of fashion is everyone wants to look younger, so that’s the meaning of fashion.”

He thought I looked great. Especially when I told him I’m 89. Then, not to be fashionably late, I went into the dinner.

Bill McCuddy is a frequent Dan’s contributor. He is a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, cohosts a movie podcast (“So I’m rolling in dough.”) with Neil Rosen and Bill Bregoli called “Sitting Around Talking Movies” and is a regular on the PBS/All Arts show “Talking Pictures” also with Rosen. He also reports on this festival for the industry website GoldDerby.com. On October 13, he will be very tired.