Customer Reviews

Vanity Fair (1-year)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Vanity Fair has undergone a major transformation in the last several years from magazine geared towards women to a monthly that appeals to a much broader audience. The writing has gotten consistently better as well, though the occasional article will be little more than fluff. Photography is always lush, with the art world's top talent contributing beautiful done shots of major stars. Issues like Young Hollywood, or New Music Stars are fantastic, and every issue is something fresh and interesting.

In any given month we get a star showcase on the cover. Recent months have seen Lindsay Lohan, Sandra Bullock, and Hilary Swank. Interviews with these stars are fascinating because they invariably reveal more than they expect to. A recent interview with Sheryl Crow revealed the best of Vanity Fair, an intelligent, emotional, and honest interview that reveals a lot about Sheryl. The acccompanying photography is simply gorgeous. Every month has a rambling diary from the frequently tiresome Dominic Dunne (yes Dom, we get it, you know everyone.), a hard hitting political piece, and a expose on the past of politics, hollywood, or society. The articles are mostly great stuff, but with some clunkers in every issue. Every time I receive an issue, I know there will be articles that will fascinate me. Friends use to claim that Vanity Fair was a girl's magazine. Well, its not just for women anymore.

That being said, don't just order here. Go to their website and to the subscription inserts in the magazine itself, compare the prices, and request that a billing notice be sent to you instead of paying with a credit card. This way when your subscription is up for renewal, you have the opportunity to cancel without your card being charged. Often times sites like this one utilize a third party service that contracts with the various magazines, your payment goes to them and they auto-renew you. I find it easier to do it through the magazine themselves. Saves me the trouble, and invariably, the magazine comes a lot quicker.

"Vanity Fair" is head and shoulders above anything else on the magazine rack. On the one hand, it has loads of fun, gossipy stories on celebrities - past and present - combined with state-of-the art work from the premier photographers in the business, including Herb Ritts and Annie Leibowitz. While the articles on entertainment celebrities are usually pure PR fluff pieces, there are also more in-depth articles about the power players behind the scenes and old Hollywood legends. These voyeristic guilty pleasures sit comfortably side-by-side with some of the best serious journalism in print. Month after month, "Vanity Fair" addresses important issues that are only covered superficially in most of the media. The editors aren't afraid to allow their reporters to do long pieces on foreign affairs, politics and the economy. If it's been a major event on the world scene, "Vanity Fair" has covered it, and covered it well. I almost always read it cover to cover, and always come away feeling like it was time well spent.

I enjoyed Vanity Fair magazine for several years but I chose to not renew it in January 2005. They sent the usual renewal notices and I tossed them out, and the magazine stopped coming.

Now in July 2005 I got a harassing letter from "National Credit Audit Corporation" threatening me if I don't pay the $15 account. I did not renew this and I don't owe it, but the tone of the letter is serious.

With some research on the Net I see that Vanity Fair is using an unreputable firm to harass people into renewing.

Anyhow this is finally getting picked up by the mainstream media such as the San Francisco Chronicle, which reported that VF's sister publication, WIRED Magazine, is doing the same thing (they are both Conde Naste publications).

NOTE this is NOT related to Amazon.com, and I am not saying if you subscribe via Amazon that this will happen. It seems to be part of a certain low-rate offer that contained certain language about "auto-renewal" that nobody could possibly read, it's so small. I am writing a letter to the magazine, the credit agency, and the attorneys general of New York and Florida.

The magazine is great, the journalism is top rate. But just try to stop your subscription, you might face the same dunning.

I would disagree slightly to say that this magazine engages in celebrity gossip. Yes you might read something with a different perspective on a certain person than you normally see, such as George Bush or Barbara Walters. The writing is very good for the most part, I think "literary journalism" is a good way to describe it.
Yes, there's always an extremely goodlooking person on the cover, with a feature article, and you might get some dirt that way, but there are all sorts of topics featured in the magazine. The writing is such that you'll find yourself reading the whole magazine, and reading about people and things you didn't necessarily think about before, nor did you originally plan to read them when you picked up the magazine.
I highly recommend this magazine.

I've been a subscriber for about 10 years now. I cannot WAIT until this magazine shows up each month. Vanity Fair is full of wonderful articles mostly of the rich elite, but it capitalizes on on how sometimes awful things can happen to people with money too. For instance, Dominick Dunne's diary of the Moxley murder and the Safra murder. I turn to Dunne's article first in every issue. Christopher Hitchens is sometimes a bit of a "windy" rebel. He sometimes makes a point a peppering a lot of words that you may have to look up in the dictionary.

The lives of the rich and famous are a fascinating read. Truman Capotes Black and White Ball article a few years ago was great. The coverage in the Middle East has been cutting edge. I first heard of the Martha Stewart Imclone stock selling in the pages of Vanity Fair well before it became a scandal.

In response to some postings on Amazon regarding the Hispanic comment: Dame Edna is a comedian. The Hispanic community should take his/her remark with a grain of salt and rise above it. I'm Polish, but I can still appreciate a good Polish joke. The well received sound of laughter is universal.

In closing, I just love reading about casanovas from the 1920's, bi-sexual poets from the 1940's, outsider art from the 1990's, famous restaurants in the 1950's, the history of the corset dating from the 1800's, and cheezy billboard art on the highways of the U.S.A.

Vanity Fair has it all.

I have read and loved Vanity Fair for years, but dropped my subscription several years ago when moving and never renewed. Why? Because the magazine varies in quality so much from month to month. I hate the Hollywood and Music issues which play to Vanity Fair's weakness for celebs and telling already known stories of their lives. I love their real articles - focusing on world events or politics from a more human angle. I much prefer at this point to simply buy the VF's that look interesting on the shelf than subscribe and run the risk of being disappointed.

I've been an avid reader of Vanity Fair since first subscribing at age 16. How else would I know the goings-on of people like Jocelyn Wildenstein and Princesses Marie-Chantal, Pia, and Alexandra (aka The Miller Sisters)?

Vanity Fair consistently provides a well-balanced volume of investigative reports, society gossip, movers-and-shakers features, and luscious photography. If you care to know the who's who of everything upper-crust -- philanthropy, fine dining, theater and the arts, film, fashion -- Vanity Fair is the magazine to treasure. The photography alone is reason enough to subscribe: they are so masterfully styled and intricately decorated, images from ten years ago still are emblazoned in my (nutty-professor-forgetful) mind.

Where can one find Annie Leibovitz, Dominick Dunne, and Christopher Hitchins as regular fare in a magazine, under the same cover, often in the same month? Vanity Fair. The subjects of the stories can range from G.W Bush's religious experiences to the use of squalene in Anthrax vaccines to the bizzare lives of the overindulged ultra-rich. For the single diner who doesn't have a handy book, VF fills the bill with just enough articles and essays to pass an hour eating dinner.

This is a magazine for those enthralled with celebrities. Without the fine writing of Christopher Hitchens I rarely would read it. The last article I enjoyed was on the eccentric Howard Hughes. I like the high quality photos, but it is basically a deeper version of "People." It has the same shallow slant that overglamorizes celebrities, luxury, consumption, & encourages narcicism. Why they have to have articles on advertising when two-thirds of the mag are ads is overkill? The first forty pages are ads, then you reach the contents page.

They also have two annoying habits. Bashing non mainstream media like attacking "Fox News," has become a sport by their competition who are clearly losing the ratings war. The constant articles on England's royal family seem repetitive & archaic. Is it not the twenty first century?

I love Vanity Fair, but after paying for the subscription, I received the current issue that had been on the stands 2 weeks, and I already had it. Then on Sept. 11, I got an old issue that was on the stands in July. I have yet to receive the current issue that I see on newstands. So basically, I have yet to receive a current issue and wonder if I ever will. By the looks of the old magazine they sent me, I am getting the returns from the news outlets, not current publications. Big disappointment. The magazine is great, but not the service.