By Kathy Megyeri
Book: “AD at Home: Architectural Digest” by Amy Astley
This breathtaking coffee table book with a forward by Anna Wintour was amassed by the editor of Architectural Digest, Amy Astley, showcasing the homes of artists, writers, fashion designers, curators, actor and dancers.
As Architectural Digest celebrates 125 years, this is our chance to see the landscapes, architecture and interiors of those whose homes would never be open to us otherwise. There’s Claudia Schiffer in her Cotswolds’ manor house; the homes of Alicia Keys, Dakota Johnson, Kendall Jenner, and fashion designer Marc Jacobs; and 68 other homes.
My favorites are Tory Burch’s 1929 Georgian home in South Hampton on the east end of Long Island and heralded as containing the photographer’s favorite bedroom. Then, there’s Gloria Steinem’s New York 1880’s brownstone apartment where this feminist, activist and journalist gathered a handful of women in 1971 and started MS magazine and where she hosted luminaries like New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, writer Alice Walker and Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller.
The pink stairwell in John Legend and Chrissy Teigen’s Beverly Hills home is a vibrant pink because they “like bright pops of color.” RuPaul’s shoe closet in his Los Angeles mansion is one we all wish we had. Then there’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s subterranean spa in her home in California that looks like one at a destination resort.
All these are part of editor Astley’s stories from the last ten years of homes, interiors and lifestyles that she has covered, done in different styles from city to country, modern to old world, classical to bohemian, and country estates to tropical getaways, all in previously unpublished images.
You will be convinced that the rich and famous do live differently than you and me, but what fun to be a voyeur and enjoy this magnificently photographed book. For the holidays, it’s easy to justify the cost of such an expensive coffee table book, especially for your favorite realtor, interior decorator, or, in my case, for the resident manager at my senior living community who counsels us on downsizing as these are clients she will never have to deal with.
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