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"Free Martha" becomes battle cry for fashionistas NEW YORK, (Reuters) - It all started with Willy. Winona followed. Now Martha Stewart is setting a new fashion trend among freedom lovers to show their support to the queen of better living: the "Free Martha" T-shirt.
They may not be as tasteful as her pastel fabrics, or flawless like her cake toppings, but they are turning out to be just as popular as the home style expert faces a probe by U.S. authorities for insider stock trading.
"Saturday Night Live" comedian Jimmy Fallon, who hosts the MTV video awards this week, wore a black shirt with the "Free Martha" legend Monday when he rang the opening bell of the Nasdaq stock market.
"I do believe ... she is part of the monarchy that we really need in this country," said Billy Tsangares, a.k.a Billy T, the designer of a line of Stewart T-shirts and owner of the "Y-Que" (Spanish for "So What") store in Los Angeles.
"She represents the matriarchal, powerful woman. Yes, I do feel sympathy for her," he told Reuters.
Stewart, chief executive of media company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. , got caught in the eye of the storm in June, when investigators started looking at the sale of some 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. shares she made in December.
Biotech firm ImClone announced a major setback for its cancer drug Erbitux, which sent its stock into a tailspin, the day after Stewart sold her company stock. Representatives for Stewart were not immediately available for comment Monday.
Former ImClone Chief Executive Sam Waksal, a close friend of Stewart who was recently indicted on securities and bank fraud charges, has his T-shirt too. It reads: "ImCrook."
Tsangares also masterminded the "Free Winona" T-shirt, which became a cult item after actress Winona Ryder was arrested for allegedly shoplifting from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in December last year.
The star even donned one of the shirts for a tongue-in-cheek photo session in the June issue of W magazine.
Willy (a.k.a. the killer whale Keiko) got an entire movie named after him, 1993's "Free Willy" -- not bad for a whale.
Tsangares confided the Martha Stewart items weren't selling as well as Ryder's, but he said sales have been steadily growing since January, when the first Stewart-related product -- a T-shirt with the "God Save the Queen" legend -- hit his retail and online stores.
That shirt came shortly after discount retailer Kmart Corp. , a main point of sale for many of Stewart's gardening, textile and bed and bath products, filed for bankruptcy raising questions about the diva's future marketing strategy.
Tsangares said that unlike the young crowd behind the "Free Winona" success, the "Free Martha" T-shirts have found a niche among 40-somethings.
"Many young people buy them for their parents," he said.
Currently, the most sought-after item is a white T-shirt with a picture of a smiling Stewart behind the bars. But there is also a red one that reads "Insider Trading, It's a bad thing", a pun on Stewart's motto, "It's a good thing."
The T-shirts are being sold in Japan too, where Stewart's product line is a hit.