Architectural Digest at 100

1. Architectural Digest: A Century of Design Excellence

Simply put, Architectural Digest is a legend, a publication one pores over and holds on to.

A Legacy of Influence. Architectural Digest (AD) has evolved from a magazine documenting California façades to a global authority on interior design. Over a century, it has captured the evolution of lifestyles, manners, and mores through the lens of architecture and design. The magazine's enduring appeal lies in its ability to showcase unforgettable images and homes, blending the past and present.

Modernization and Vision. Under the editorship of Amy Astley, AD has modernized, becoming more youthful, stylish, and full of personality. The magazine now reflects the lives of homeowners, not just idealized visions of designers. This shift has brought warmth and energy to its pages, updating AD for the 21st century with digital brands like Clever and ADPro.

Celebrating Homes and Design. AD at 100 is a celebration of unforgettable homes, from Frank Gehry’s Santa Monica residence to the Obama White House. It highlights the stars of pop culture who have welcomed AD into their private realms, examining their versions of the well-lived life. The magazine's focus on interior designers, architects, and landscape designers guarantees a "wow factor" that readers expect month after month.

2. California: The Birthplace of AD and Modern Innovation

The young publication elucidated a vision of America’s western frontier as a place of 20th-century innovation and promise, replete with stately Mediterranean-style manses, sun-kissed Italianate gardens, and picturesque reflecting pools.

Golden State Beginnings. Architectural Digest was founded in Los Angeles in 1920, initially focusing on the glories of California. The magazine championed the state as a place of 20th-century innovation, showcasing Mediterranean-style homes, Italianate gardens, and reflecting pools. As California became a crucible for modernism, AD reveled in the heterogeneity of its landscape.

Architectural Pioneers. The magazine championed California-based architects such as Wallace Neff, Cliff May, and Paul R. Williams. Neff, known for romantic houses for Hollywood stars, was a staple of AD's editorial mix. Williams, the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects, helped establish an image of California glamour that captivated the world.

Modernist Movement. AD tracked the advent and blossoming of California modernism, featuring the Case Study crowd—Richard Neutra, Pierre Koenig, and Craig Ellwood. Master photographers like Julius Shulman chronicled their work, selling the progressive style to a skeptical public. Later, the progeny of the early modernists, from John Lautner to Frank Gehry, became the new standard-bearers.

3. Celebrity Homes: Reflecting Shifting Tides of Taste

They humanize our glossy vision, lending charisma, personality, and context to our photography and providing an irresistible way to chart the shifting tides of taste.

Popular Appeal. Architectural Digest has always recognized the popular appeal of celebrity culture, chronicling the homes of Tinseltown grandees. The magazine has followed the celebrity diaspora from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, New York City, Europe, and beyond, as styles evolved along endlessly shifting tides of taste. Certain stories crystallized particular moments in time with indelible images of stars at home.

Design-Savvy Celebrities. Several discerning celebrities became staples of the AD mix, with the magazine charting the trajectory of their careers through home design. From the 1970s to the present, Elton John, Candice Bergen, John Travolta, and Robert Redford each made multiple appearances. Designers who found favor among actors, musicians, and other glitterati were lauded side by side with their high-profile clients.

Modern Celebrity Coverage. Celebrity coverage continues to be an important part of AD's DNA. Design-addicted actors such as Julianne Moore and Jennifer Aniston happily invite the magazine in, while stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Ricky Martin demonstrate the joy of home decor as a family affair. In the age of social media, AD offers new digital channels to view the world’s ever-changing constellation of pop stars.

4. Designers' Own Homes: Personal Sanctuaries of Innovation

Sometimes people come into my apartment and say, ‘Oh, give me a room like this one.’ I can’t. One just cannot. It’s a very difficult thing to do because one’s home is usually personal, especially mine.

Laboratories of Style. Designers' own homes serve as laboratories where they indulge fantasies, satisfy whims, and experiment. These residences are places where the best in the field enjoy the ultimate luxury: working to please themselves. Architectural Digest has chronicled these spaces for decades, spotlighting them in its annual Designers’ Own Homes issue since 1996.

From Scratch to Siren Calls. Intrepid decorators and architects often create spaces entirely from scratch, such as Arthur Elrod's commission of John Lautner to design a tour de force above Palm Springs. Others can’t resist the siren call of the past, like Axel Vervoordt’s Venetian flat in a 15th-century palazzo. Elsie de Wolfe transformed her Villa Trianon in Versailles into the beau ideal of 20th-century taste and style.

Personal Statements. In the hands of masters like Albert Hadley, even cookie-cutter New York City apartments can become glorious personal statements. Mario Buatta noted that a professional’s own residence is deeply personal and difficult to replicate, highlighting the unique appeal and potential pitfalls of showcasing such spaces.

5. City Dwellings: Urban Redoubts of Style and Defiance

The mix is what makes it interesting,” Passebon observed. “It leads to a vibe and to emotion.

Urban Sanctuaries. Architectural Digest has chronicled urban redoubts enriched with fantasy, wit, and defiance by metropole tastemakers. From old-guard uptowners to pioneering downtowners, the magazine captures the pulse of each location, its vibrancy, and variety. Blue-chip historic addresses like Manhattan’s Dakota and London’s Albany are prime perches that show up time and again.

Idiosyncrasy and Innovation. Idiosyncrasy is the thread that connects AD’s big-city tales, the kind of nose-thumbing that a big pond seems to invite. A São Paulo house by the Campana Brothers presents a straw-covered front so shaggy that its resident children have compared it to a woolly mammoth. For Hong Kong patrons, Mattia Bonetti conjured up a carnival of pencil-scribbled walls, polychrome patchworks, and gleaming lacquered furnishings.

Personal Expression. Daphne Guinness craved “a sort of savage modernism” in her Manhattan apartment, while Lee Radziwill wandered amid delicate flowers in her Upper East Side penthouse. Lapo Elkann delighted in a rebel-chic mash-up of brilliant blue lacquered walls, bamboo-frond wallpaper, and zigzag-pattern floors. These homes reflect the unique personalities and tastes of their inhabitants, creating highly personal urban sanctuaries.

6. Country Escapes: Embracing Nature and Simplicity

It is in this tranquil setting that Mr. Beaton writes and paints and pursues his hobby of gardening.

Tranquility and Nature. Country living is defined by what it lacks—hustle and bustle—as well as by what it offers, from secluded acreage to a connection with nature. Architectural Digest's country coverage has evolved to encompass out-of-the-way addresses where simpler, more laid-back lives are lived. These homes often feature architecture, interiors, and gardens masterminded by innovators and provocateurs.

Architectural and Design Harmony. Architect Gae Aulenti’s villa in Italy’s Emilian plain is an exquisite example, with whitewashed fir trunks and a sunbaked-brick surround. Modernist aeries by Olson Kundig and McLean Quinlan are designed to maximize views of spectacular mountain settings. Renzo Mongiardino’s scheme for the Mondadori family’s villa near Venice is a garden indoors and out, with flowers on the curtains as well as in the parterres.

Bohemian Aplomb and Authenticity. AD’s country-house coverage also celebrates bohemian aplomb, residences that fulfill sans-souci tenets of country style. American writer Brooke Metcalfe said of her family’s 17th-century Oxfordshire house, “We threw out all the rules.” A century after fervently championing movie-set mock-rusticity, AD now showcases earthy authenticity, where the knowing meets the naive in perfect harmony.

7. Fashion Insiders: Where Style Extends Beyond the Runway

A house itself isn’t important,” she mused. “It’s what you do in it, how you give it life.

Beyond the Runway. For the rich cast of fashion-industry legends whose homes have graced the pages of Architectural Digest, disregard for convention has been the overarching theme. Donatella Versace stated that her neoclassical Milanese residence was not a bourgeois home, but a place where celebrity friends congregated. These homes offer a seamless extension of brand and personality.

Personal Expression. Consider Diane von Furstenberg’s New York City bedroom, a faceted-glass dome that sits atop an industrial building. Or Kenzo Takada’s compound of bamboo structures and Japanese rock gardens in the middle of Paris. Valentino Garavani and partner Giancarlo Giammetti entertain in outsize splendor at Château de Wideville, their palatial mansion near Paris.

Brand Alignment and Disconnection. For many fashion insiders, home offers a seamless extension of brand, such as Ralph Lauren’s preppy Americana and Giorgio Armani’s monochromatic rigor. Others view their private world as a place to disconnect, like Michael Kors and his husband, who consider their Zen apartment to be a “palette cleanser.” In every case, personality takes center stage, enhancing the characters who inhabit these spaces.

8. Coastal Living: Dreams of Seaside Serenity

Location matters; it matters a lot.

Seaside Allure. Given Architectural Digest’s origins in Southern California, it’s no wonder that the magazine and its readers remain captivated by seaside housekeeping. The indoor-outdoor lifestyle that AD’s early articles celebrated is a dream shared by many. Some imagine communing with the primeval, while others are attracted to the relaxing of rules that coastal living suggests.

Inspiration and Fantasy. Whether one’s aesthetic desire is a shingled cottage, a hip bungalow, or a palatial villa, the natural world tends to rule when it comes to coastal decor. Littoral acreage inevitably inspires fantasies of the far and away, giving homeowners a chance to build daydreams to live in, at least for periods of downtime. Hollywood actress Merle Oberon hired architect Juan Sordo Madaleno to construct a Moorish-modern pleasure dome on the Bay of Acapulco.

Cutting-Edge Coastal Design. One of the most cutting-edge coastal fantasies that AD has captured is arts patron George Lindemann Jr.’s shocking-pink getaway in Miami Beach. It’s an eye-popping wonderland that he and designer Frank de Biasi outfitted with sinuous, colorful, and cartoonish furnishings. This reflects a trend towards creating unique, personalized spaces that enhance and reflect the lives of their inhabitants.

Last updated: April 9, 2025