Sofia Coppola doesn't trust anyone who doesn't have at least a little self-doubt. Fashion star Marc Jacobs, she says, has his own fair share. Their mutual trust comes across clearly in her first documentary, Marc by Sofia.
"It's funny, neither of us were looking to make a documentary," Coppola said about Marc by Sofia.
The award-winning filmmaker has made a slew of dreamy, visually arresting features like Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006) and Priscilla (2023). But she said it was "scary" at first for her to take on the challenge of making a documentary.
"It was different because there was no script, so I didn't have a map of where we were going. In that way, it was exciting and interesting to find the film in the editing room," she told Morning Edition host A Martínez. "It was sort of like putting a lot in a blender and then and then finding a shape as we went."
That shape was to follow Jacobs starting 12 weeks before the Marc Jacobs Fall/Winter 2024 show at New York's Park Avenue Armory until the morning after the show.
Rather than a traditional documentary, the film weaves through the many references and influences that have marked the designer's rise. It's an echo of the kind of cultural collage for which Jacobs is known.
Coppola and Jacobs met in the early 1990s, as Jacobs was nearing the end of his time at the Perry Ellis fashion house with his grunge-inspired collection that featured floral dresses, flannel shirts, striped knitwear and black leather boots.
During a trip to New York with her mother, a young Coppola went to the Perry Ellis showroom and started a conversation with Jacobs as he came out of the studio. They've been close friends ever since, moving through their formative years together as Jacobs became a leading American designer and Coppola directed several major films.
Despite Jacobs' success, the "fly on the wall" documentary captures him growing increasingly anxious as his runway show nears.
"I work to show the work. But then showing the work is a very frightening thing," he says.
That's a familiar sentiment for Coppola. "It was interesting watching him kind of finding his way and doubting, not knowing where he was going. I was going through the same exact thing making the film," she said.
Coppola also straddles both film and fashion. She's launched cosmetic lines and had her own clothing brand — Milkfed — as well as modeled for Jacobs' perfume and fashion lines. Much of her wardrobe was designed by her friend.
"We're all nerds, really, people that make stuff, but we keep that more hidden," she said. "I don't trust anyone that doesn't have a little self-doubt. I think you need a little to keep you on your toes."
Jacobs is shown demanding very precise aesthetics for even the most minute details, like telling nail artist Jin Soon Choi to find "dead Barbie" nail polish, saying the initially chosen shade was too bright of a pink.
Early in the film, he scrutinizes multiple fabric swatches that look almost identical but none of them quite satisfies him.
"I was looking for something like sheer, but... not nylon, not really a synthetic, more like a wool that was a fine gauge or a woolen nylon... so maybe between the size of the yarn, the gauge and the tension, but somehow where we could get a sheer feeling," he says.
Elsewhere in the film, he references the "Big Spender" number in Bob Fosse's 1966 Broadway musical Sweet Charity, where dance hall hostesses tempt a patron with their charms, complete with heavy mascara, puffed-up hairdos, jewels, sequins and rhinestones.
Jacobs also speaks of The Supremes' sparkly gowns, Yves Saint Laurent's 1971 "Scandal" collection — inspired by 1940s war era fashion — Liz Taylor's diamonds, Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills" photo series, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's visually kitschy 1972 film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Vivienne Westwood's punk aesthetics and his own grandmother's uptown style during shopping trips at department stores.
But the film barely touches upon more challenging aspects of Jacobs' past, such as his fractured family, business challenges and his struggles with substance use. Instead, Marc by Sofia focuses, like Coppola's feature films, on the surfaces, finding deeper meaning in them as they are.
"He has a rebellious spirit, which I think all creative people can relate to," she said. "I felt like I couldn't make a conventional documentary about someone who goes against the grain."
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Milton Guevara and Ana Perez. The digital version was edited by Treye Green.
Copyright 2026 NPR
