Long before Marc Jacobs was filling his runways with A-list front rows or Sofia Coppola was making Oscar-winning films, the pair were simply two twenty-something creatives coming up together in a very specific moment of downtown New York. Their first meeting at Jacobs’ 1992 “grunge” collection for Perry Ellis set the tone for the scene they continued to orbit through the ’90s — one defined by stripped-down anti-glamour and effortlessness.
They may have dropped the grunge, but they’ve maintained one of fashion’s most famous friendships. When producers approached Jacobs about a documentary, he agreed only if Coppola directed. “With Sofia, I knew we’d be comfortable with each other,” he tells Variety from a corner booth at Cafe Cluny in the West Village, his signature nails curled around a glass of Arnold Palmer. “There wouldn’t be all those documentary cliches: the interrogations, the dramatic music playing.”
Coppola wasn’t as sure. “I don’t know how to make a documentary,” she recalls thinking. Being close friends with the subject added pressure: “If it’s for Marc, it has to be good.” But when Jacobs began work on his Spring/Summer 2024 collection, she thought, “Okay, we can’t miss this moment.” She called her brother Roman Coppola and headed to Jacobs’ SoHo studio.
The 70-minute film plays more like a visual scrapbook, weaving archival footage of their ’90s heyday with the pop-culture touchstones that shaped him. There’s no professional lighting or makeup; Jacobs is often tired, occasionally sucking on a bedazzled vape between questions. Watching one scene for the first time, he recalls thinking, “What the hell is happening with my hair there? I would’ve never let that happen with another director.” For Coppola, that intimacy was the point: “I wanted it to feel like no one but I could have made it.”
Ahead of “Marc by Sofia,” which releases Friday, Coppola and Jacobs discuss their ’90s heyday, the evolution of personal style in New York City and their personal muses.
The doc doesn’t include any of Marc’s personal life. Was this intentional?
Sofia Coppola: We were really figuring it out as we went. We never even talked about including or not including any of that. I never want to pry.
Marc Jacobs: There is that part where Sofia comes to my house and I started talking about my childhood. I wish I hadn’t done that because that felt like a [typical] documentary. It’s not a big deal, and it was only like 30 seconds, but I sort of felt like, “Why did I go there?” But I think it was just in the moment, I was being very reflective. But I didn’t want it to feel like a news special, like Diane Sawyer.
Coppola: But I liked listening to your childhood because I think that all of what we do comes from that place in a relatable way. Also I’m obsessed with that scene on your couch, lounging in your Prada robe.
That was the day after the show?
Coppola: Exactly. The “Post Art Done” crash. I wanted to capture that to help make sense of the whole cycle. Like, now he’s gonna get up and do it again. And we all feel like that. I always feel like that after a film, where there’s a crash because there’s all this adrenaline, and you’re with all these people, and then it’s like when a summer camper goes home. I can relate to that letdown.
Social media has made it easier than ever for younger generations to replicate people’s looks. Do you think there’s been a loss of personal style compared to the ‘90s?
Coppola: Oh yeah, I heard there’s all these young guys trying to look like JFK Jr. now. [laughs]
Jacobs: I mean, in my mother’s generation every young woman her age wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor and to be as glamorous. She became the archetype for a sexy, beautiful woman.
Coppola: For me, it was Kate Moss. But living in New York, I love seeing people all dressed up and going out in a full look. It’s nice to see what teenagers spend their time on.
You say in the film that people felt “scandalized by anything natural” in the ‘90s because it was hard to replicate.
Jacobs: It was completely the opposite from the glamour of the ’80s that came before, which was like lighting, makeup, glamour. One of the things that was so dramatic about grunge and that whole era of photography was that it was about this girl who was 5’7″, she wasn’t a glamazon. And the most beautiful pictures of her were with no makeup, in a pair of panties and a bra. No hair, no makeup. That’s really a problem for women because they can’t take a picture to the beauty parlor.
Your most recent collection evokes a lot of that ‘90s grunge. Was that a coincidence?
Jacobs: We didn’t sit down at the table and say, “Let’s do a collection right around the movie.” I just think certain things came up that triggered a memory. Like we put together this wooden-like shirt with a skirt. Even though it didn’t look at all like its original X-Girl T-shirt with a mini skirt, it was the same idea: the perfect baby tee with a perfect mini skirt, which was very much part of that time period’s aesthetic.
You both have said your art is about pure entertainment and fun. During fraught times, do you feel pressure to make a statement rather than be a form of escape?
Coppola: I’m torn because as an artist it gets confusing. You don’t want to make something light because we’re in this really heavy time, but you don’t want to make something dark. For me, it’s about making something inspiring about creativity in a time where people are down about the same thing. There’s always beauty in creativity.
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