Plus: Who Defines American Style?

Welcome to Vanity Fair’s 2026 Style Issue, featuring our unexpected, undeniable cover star: Marc Jacobs.


Marc reinvents himself more often than Madonna does (and sometimes to better effect). This summer he began a new professional chapter following the sale of his company after nearly three decades with LVMH. In his interview with VF style correspondent José Criales-Unzueta, his first since the estimated $850 million deal was announced, Marc answers all of our questions with the kind of candor, humor, and resilience that makes him a personal hero and, to my mind, our greatest American designer.


Fashion designers have appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair before—Ralph Lauren in February 1988 and Tom Ford for the 2006 Hollywood Issue, which he guest-edited—but we hope the cover of Marc (wearing Chanel) nonetheless feels like a surprise. A special thank-you to artist Anna Weyant, who, when asked to paint Marc’s portrait, immediately and enthusiastically said yes. It was a stretch, as Anna exclusively paints women, and had been preparing for a prestigious solo show at the Casa Malaparte; I’m so grateful to her.


Vanity Fair took on the Style Issue much the same way we did our Hollywood Issue and our recent Sports Issue, asking ourselves: How does fashion intersect with all the other worlds that *Vanity Fair* inhabits? The arts and pop culture, business, technology, and, not to be overlooked here, politics.

Three stories we published this week come to mind: Robin Givhan’s examination of how MAGA has hijacked American fashion; a media profile of Puck correspondent and fashion world bête noire Lauren Sherman by Washington correspondent Aidan McLaughlin; and Marisa Meltzer’s survey of Les Lalanne, tracing how work by the great artist couple has evolved from being an IYKYK status symbol to finding mainstream fame.


Perhaps the Style Issue story that best exemplifies *Vanity Fair*’s approach to fashion is “The United States of Style,” a portfolio by photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez and fashion editor Tonne Goodman, masterminded by José. These pictures examine classic American style archetypes (hippies, suits, a society swan, and a cowboy) alongside contemporary ones (clean girls, baddies, and a looksmaxxer). My favorite group is the Preppies, for which we cast nearly a dozen *Vanity Fair* writers and editors.


And because this issue would feel incomplete without it, next week means the return of the Vanity Fair Best Dressed List. (Marc and his Chanel jackets made the cut.)

MARK GUIDUCCI
GLOBAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

STYLE

 

Marc Jacobs Cannot Tell a Lie

 

By José Criales-Unzueta

 

In his four decades in fashion, Jacobs has weathered personal storms and professional crises, coming back stronger each time. In a revealing interview, the great American designer holds forth on his LVMH sale, past scandals, and exactly—or maybe not so exactly—what his next chapter will mean for his runway collections. Read more

ART

 

Meet Les Lalanne, the New Status Symbol for Billionaires and the Creative Elite

 

By Marisa Meltzer

 

Throughout the 1970s, François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne created fantastical pieces of furniture—life-size hippo wet bars, flocks of cement sheep—that are currently conquering the art market. As billionaires fixate on acquiring whole menageries, can Lalanne keep the magic? Read more

STYLE

 

From Cowboys to Clean Girls: The State of American Style, in Pictures

 

By Luis Alberto Rodriguez

 

Designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla, author Mary H.K. Choi, rapper JT, journalist Jacob Soboroff. Meet the figures who embody the new archetypes of American style. Read more

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

 

How the MAGA Movement Is Hijacking Style

 

By Robin Givhan

 

As President Donald J. Trump puts his stamp all over Washington, Robin Givhan takes a look at the look of MAGA, from Melania Trump to Pete Hegseth. Read more

STYLE

 

Sherman’s March: How Fashion Learned to Fear a Newsletter

 

By Aidan McLaughlin

 

Hedda Hopper. Elsa Maxwell. Cindy Adams. We’ve always had a love-hate relationship with our most celebrated purveyors of gossip. Lauren Sherman, author of Line Sheet, is the latest inheritor of the mantle. Vanity Fair hits the shows with the journalist about whom everyone in fashion has an opinion. Read more

EDITOR’S LETTER

 

MAGA Has Changed American Style. Who Defines It Now?

 

By Mark Guiducci

 

Eleven years after Donald Trump first donned a MAGA cap, what we wear has never more clearly been a signpost for our allegiances. The new issue of Vanity Fair examines fashion fault lines. Read more

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