To mark her 100th issue exploring the homes of celebrities and creatives at Architectural Digest, global editorial director Amy Astley wanted to give readers something that they could display in their own homes. With AD at Home, Astley highlights her favorite interiors—from townhomes and beachside mansions to a houseboat in Copenhagen—all wrapped up into a lush coffee table book whose slightly unexpected pale pink and aubergine color combination is representative of the eclectic homeowners inside.
“I felt this book should celebrate the people in Architectural Digest: interesting people with exciting houses that people remember,” Astley tells Observer. Among those memorable homes, you’ll find sun-drenched California retreats from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Dakota Johnson. But you’ll also find Gloria Steinem’s memento-filled Manhattan apartment and the spherical home and studio space that Japanese artist Mariko Mori commissioned on Miyako Island.
Courtesy AD Gloria Steinem in her New York City apartment, featured in ‘AD at Home.’
Then, there’s the fashion set, who feature prominently in Astley’s vision for Architectural Digest, which has included building a digital presence of more than seven million YouTube subscribers and creating a more culturally relevant brand for the 100-plus-year-old publication. “The fashion world offers up lots of interesting characters,” she says, noting that AD at Home opens with Marc Jacobs and his four-story Manhattan townhouse for visual and sentimental reasons. “Marc’s house is one of the most memorable that I’ve photographed because it’s a surprising house,” Astley says of its unexpected aesthetic. “Marc has always been a little bit of a wild child of the fashion world, but his house is super tailored and very formal. And then he really has major artworks by Urs Fischer, Elizabeth Peyton, John Currin, Ellsworth Kelly, Ed Ruscha—it all comes together into something that could only be his house,” she explains.
Marc Jacobs’ home was also the first cover Astley produced for Architectural Digest when she joined the magazine as editor-in-chief in 2016. “I think a lot of people in the industry were sort of like, ‘Who’s this fashion girl from Vogue/” title=”Teen Vogue” class=”company-link”>Teen Vogue?’” Astley recalls of being appointed to the role by Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s artistic director and Vogue’s editor-in-chief at the time. But interior design was far from “out of the blue,” as Astley puts it, given that her journalism career began at House & Garden magazine. “I worked there for a little bit under five years, but I started as the editor-in-chief’s second assistant,” says Astley. “This was pre-email days, and it sort of took two assistants to deal with the office because the phones were ringing so maniacally all day long.” When Condé Nast announced the magazine’s closure in 1993, Astley was recommended to Wintour by a senior colleague and landed a position as an associate beauty editor at Vogue. Now considered Wintour’s protégé, Astley would be promoted to beauty director just a year later.
“I thought I would go to Vogue for a year or two and then pivot back into interiors,” Astley says of the switch. “But Vogue ended up being a very exciting place for me, and Anna gave me a lot of challenges and responsibilities.” Those responsibilities included launching Teen Vogue in 2003, where Astley served as editor-in-chief for more than 10 years, and building long-lasting relationships with celebrities and fashion’s elite in the process. “Teen Vogue taught me how to lead a team, how to spot talent, how to trust my instincts—it was also the place where I really cut my teeth learning the digital business,” shares Astley. “But I do feel I came full circle with Architectural Digest; back to my beginning at House & Garden and my passion for interiors.”
Architectural Digest AD at Home.
Nearly 10 years in with Architectural Digest, Astley continues to be inspired by fashion designers. “I don’t know that she’s ever shown her home in Milan, and I don’t really expect that she will, but Miuccia Prada would be a dream,” Astley says of a home she’d most like to peek inside. “She’s such a brilliant person, and what makes the house interesting is really her.” But she also finds ideas for new features through the people she meets, whether she’s attending a work lunch hosted by Chanel or a ballet gala at Lincoln Center on a night off. “I call it house whispering,” she says of scoping out new homes.
As she gets ready for her international book tour—and perhaps some “house whispering” on the road—Amy Astley spoke with Observer about her current essentials, from the beauty products she’ll be traveling with to the off-menu item she orders when she’s home.
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