Vanity Fair has selected a new face to represent American style, and he's not actually from America.
Swedish-born model and internet streamer Marlon Lundgren Garcia is featured as "The Face" in the magazine's September 2026 "State of American Style" portfolio, which explores the people and aesthetics shaping fashion in the United States.
At 6-foot-5, Lundgren Garcia was chosen to represent a contemporary standard of male beauty increasingly influenced by fitness, skincare, social media, and the online "looksmaxxing" movement.
"In the age of protein, peptides, and looksmaxxing, everybody wants to look new," the magazine wrote. "Marlon Lundgren Garcia, a Swedish-born model and internet streamer, is the kind of face (and six-foot-five physique) of perfection a generation of men pursue for themselves."
Vanity Fair style correspondent José Criales-Unzueta wrote the feature, Luis Alberto Rodriguez photographed it, and Tonne Goodman edited the fashion. Rather than focusing solely on traditional designers or Hollywood stars, the portfolio uses a collection of archetypes to examine American fashion and beauty as the country enters its 251st year.
Lundgren Garcia's selection is particularly notable given his Swedish background, something that quickly became a talking point on social media after the feature was published Thursday.
Streamer DigitalTrapGEM questioned Vanity Fair's decision to use someone born outside the United States to represent American style, though he mistakenly identified Lundgren Garcia as Swiss before another user corrected that he's Swedish.
Others were more receptive to the choice. A separate post highlighting Vanity Fair's description of the model collected more than 2,000 likes, while clips discussing the feature began spreading on TikTok shortly after its publication.
Lundgren Garcia's rise hasn't come exclusively through traditional modeling. He's also developed an online following through streaming (he has 2.8 million followers on Twitch) and has become a recognizable figure in internet communities centered around men's appearance and self-improvement.
Lundgren Garcia isn't the only person Vanity Fair used to capture its vision of modern American style.
The larger portfolio includes JT as "The Body," fashion designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla as "The Artisan," Princess Talita von Fürstenberg as "The Swan," Anna Van Patten and Phoebe Tonkin as the "Clean Girls,” author Mary H.K. Choi and journalist Jacob Soboroff as “The Suits,” and James Simmons as “The Cowboy.” Other archetypes include “The Hippies,” “The Scene,” and “The Preppies.”
