Product Description

From sprawling villas to beachside bungalows, mountain chalets to sophisticated city townhouses, Architectural Digest goes inside the stunning homes of the world's most fascinating people, from Hollywood royalty to political powerhouses, from fashion legends to media moguls. Every issue showcases the talents of their gifted interior designers and architects and reveals the trade secrets that make each home unique.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #152 in Magazine Subscriptions
• Formats: Magazine Subscription, Print

Amazon.com Review

Editorial Reviews

Who Reads Architectural Digest?
Architectural Digest is the world’s leading design publication, with a total audience of nearly five million. Its readers are successful, sophisticated and well-read; they recognize and appreciate good design--whether it’s found in a chair, a yacht or a house--and they expect to see spectacular photographs and informative features about extraordinary interiors and architecture along with well-written articles about home electronics, travel and automobile and jewelry design.

What You Can Expect in Each Issue:
Whether highlighting an art-filled Manhattan townhouse, a modern dwelling in Japan or a California vineyard residence, each issue of Architectural Digest presents an arresting mix of interior design and architecture from the world’s leading designers and architects. Regular columns include:

• AD Architecture: Highlighting projects by the foremost architects working today.
• AD Travels and AD Shopping: Noted designers take readers on a tour of their favorite shops and sources in cities around the globe.
• AD Electronica: The magazine’s guide to new and interesting home electronics.
• Estates for Sale
• Great Design Under $100
• Discoveries By Designers: Presenting singular designer sources.

Each year, Architectural Digest publishes several special issues: Before & After, Designers’ Own Homes, American Country Houses, Exotic Homes Around the World, and the Architecture Issue. Other special editions include Designer Secrets Revealed, Hollywood at Home and the Great Design Issue. The popular AD100 has become the definitive directory of the top 100 designers and architects working today.

Feature Articles: Every issue of Architectural Digest presents residential design around the globe. The stunning photographs give readers the opportunity to "walk through" a home, along with informative and entertaining feature interviews with designers, architects and homeowners. In addition to regular design features, there are profiles of fascinating people, such as Ted Turner; Steven Spielberg; Anjelica Huston; Lance Armstrong; Diane Keaton; Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones; Sting; and John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Several times a year, Architectural Digest publishes several special sections, including Hotels Around the World; AD Style, a collection of some of the most innovative design around today; and Motoring by Design, which highlights automotive innovations, concept cars and automobile collectors, like Nicola Bulgari of the legendary Italian jewelry firm.

Past Issues:

Contributors:
Architectural Digest contains the work of some of the finest writers and photographers working today. Contributing Writers include Paul Theroux, fiction, non-fiction and travel writer; Patricia Leigh Brown of theNew York Times; Gerald Clarke, biographer of Truman Capote and Judy Garland; Nancy Collins, author of Hard to Get: Fast Talk and Rude Questions Along the Interview Trail; architecture critic Joseph Giovannini; Judith Thurman, author of biographies of Colette and Isak Dinesen and featured writer for the New Yorker ; architecture writer Mildred F. Schmertz; writer and critic Amanda Vaill; and Pulitzer Prize-winner Susan Sheehan.

Among the Contributing Photographers are legendary photo journalist Harry Benson; Durston Saylor; Mary E. Nichols; Scott Frances; Derry Moore; Robert Reck; Peter Aaron; and Tony Soluri.

Magazine Layout
Architectural Digest takes readers inside some of the most extraordinary homes being created today with stunning photographs and well-written and informative articles.

Comparisons to Other Magazines
Architectural Digest is regarded as the only magazine that brings its readers exclusive international coverage of the best interior design, architecture, art and antiques--along with select stories on travel, jewelry design and luxury automobiles.

Advertising
Architectural Digest advertisers represent suppliers of the finest home design products available, from fabrics, furniture and carpets, kitchen and bath suppliers as well as luxury automobiles, fine jewelry and watches, electronics, art and antiques. The magazine’s readers see, source and buy products directly from its pages.

Customer Reviews

Try 'Architecture' and 'Dwell' Instead
'Architectural Digest' has changed over the years to become fussier and more lifestyle oriented than substantial architecture and design commentary. I still have a subscription, but intend to allow it to lapse when it expires for three primary reasons:

1) The magazine is huge and cumbersome, largely due to the massive quantity of advertisements;
2) The magazine exclusively highlights gazillion dollar homes, that only are a factor for celebrities;
3) Stylistically, the magazine seems stuck in a rut of cluttered end tables and credenzas, overstuffed pillows, and no space on a wall unoccupied by a huge, gold, gilded framed picture from eighteenth century France.

I don't like clutter, and I don't like being ornate to make a house look rich. That's why I no longer think this is a magazine that I really need. For me I will read 'Architecture' for serious architectural commentary, and 'Dwell' for reasonable (and financially attainable) interior design commentary. Thanks, but no thanks.

Mixed Bag
I used to love Architectural Digest. I got to admire and be inspired by incredible homes, and I couldn't wait to get my issue every month.

However, lately, I have seen less Architecture than Interior Design, and more ads than ever. I've even let my subscription lapse. Every now and again, I'll pick it up on the magazine rack, but only if the issue is architecture heavy, or covers a particularly interesting project in depth.

Architectural Digest used to be the pinnacle in the field, but now it is just a mixed bag.

Architectural Digest: the source for interior designers
Architectural Digest is not an "architecture" magazine as many people believe it is. It began as an architecture magazine, but slowly became known for its coverage of building interiors that consumers wanted to see. This is true today, as the cover article is generally the about the interior of a famed actor, politician, designer, or artist's home. These articles are remniscent of a paper version of MTV's show "Cribs." While the articles about the interiors dominate, an accompanying photograph of the exterior tags along when appropriate. The articles discuss the ideas, sources, materials and inspiration behind the designs pictured. Each magazine generally has about one dozen such articles plus features.
The magazine caters to the needs of interior designers and those who can, or wish they could hire them. The magazine does not promote or favor either traditional or modern design.
AD (as it calls itself) is full of advertisements. Some people may find this irritating, but for a designer, decorator, or client searching for inspiration or sources this information is equally valuable as the articles and features. Ads are just as telling of where the industry is going and where it has been as any picture or text.
If you subscribe, do it because you know and want what AD is. It is expensive, thick, and very useful if you are interested with the cutting edge of interior design. Do not get it to learn more about architecture or for the quality or readability of its text. Pictures and advertisements are the game with AD.If you are still unsure, pick up one at the newsstand and check it out before you buy 12 issues - most issues are like the others and "special" issues are frequent but not really that different from the norm.