Plus: The New MAGA Status Symbols

September 18, 2026

On Wednesday, I attended a packed New York Film Festival press screening of NAZA, a vital new documentary by Oscar winners Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor that has stoked furor in the filmmakers’ native Israel. The movie features 24 Israeli intelligence officers speaking anonymously and matter-of-factly about the nation’s disregard for civilian life in Gaza; Benjamin Netanyahu wants to strip Abraham and Szor of their citizenship for making it. VF will have more on the film after its official New York premiere—but the conversation around NAZA is a natural complement to this excerpt from Benjamin Moser’s new book, Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History. In it, Moser joins celebrated artist Nan Goldin as she debuts a new project: a slideshow of photos from Gaza. “At the end of the film, it feels uncomfortable, indeed almost obscene, to clap,” Moser writes. The audience at NAZA would have said the same.


Elsewhere, Lindsey Underwood catches up with Serena Williams, whose new watch for Audemars Piguet is a grand slam (sorry), while Wisdom Iheanyichukwu chats with Gemma Chan about her busy fall, and Aidan McLaughlin reveals the secret status symbols coveted by the MAGA elite. (Do they even know about Serena Williams’s watch?) More tomorrow!


HILLARY BUSIS
FEATURES EDITOR

In an exclusive excerpt from Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Benjamin Moser bears witness to Goldin’s public display of dissent while receiving an award at the Rencontres d’Arles. Read more

ART

 

Patti Smith and Photographer Lynn Davis on Their Enduring Friendship With Robert Mapplethorpe

 

By Madison Reid

 

Nearly 40 years after Mapplethorpe’s death, Smith and Davis haven’t forgotten anything about their lives in New York during the 1970s and beyond. For the first time, all three artists’ works are being shown together. “Life was the art,” Davis tells Vanity Fair. “You can see the freedom in the pictures.” Read more

STYLE

 

An Interview With Serena Williams as She Adds a New Title to the List—Watch Designer

 

By Lindsey Underwood

 

The tennis star on juggling motherhood, getting back on the court, and finding time for it all. Read more

FASHION

 

Gemma Chan Knows How to Dress

 

By Wisdom Iheanyichukwu

 

The Five-Star Weekend actor chats with VF during New York Fashion Week about finding her personal style and her new film Josephine. Read more


Mansions, Jets, and the Secret White House Watch: The New Status Symbols of Trump’s Washington

 

By Aidan McLaughlin

 

In a capital flush with cash, there are new emblems of power: certain watches, certain private clubs, even landing your private jet at a certain airport. Read more

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