Vanity Fair October 2008 Collector

Vanity Fair’s October issue celebrates its 25th birthday with one of the most iconic women from the last century on the cover. The cover shot comes from Marilyn Monroe’s last shoot which took place weeks before her death in 1962.

Top features include the collection of the past quarter century’s worth of covers (all 309 of them!), a Fall Culture Guide to New York, Masha Gessen’s piece on Putin’s death-grip on Russia in the wake of the recent conflict in Georgia and the tragic saga of Brooke Astor’s final years as her son heads to trial on charges of fraud and conspiracy. Society gossip, political discourse, celebrities and fashion tips… might all seem incongruous but when it’s Vanity Fair, it’s sublime… www.vanityfair.co.uk

Some iconic Vanity Fair covers from recent years