“I had met many great designers before, but he was different: he wore worn Stan Smiths, spoke naturally, loved the same bands and artists I did, and shared my same appreciation and sense of humor about the idea of being ‘feminine,’” Sofia Coppola writes of Marc Jacobs in the introduction to the 2019 book Marc Jacobs Illustrated.
You can tell: it was love at first sight between Coppola and the New York designer, an immediate connection. One of those bonds so instant and true that it seems almost the residue of another life; so predisposed, spontaneous, easy. Their friendship was so monumental to both of them that it inspired Coppola to direct a documentary about him, giving the world a glimpse at their megawatt friendship.
As previously announced, Marc by Sofia—that’s the film’s title, winking at the Marc By Marc Jacobs fashion line—will be presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival 2025 Tuesday. Rather than a classic celebratory biography detailing the designer’s (staggering) life and achievements, the film is presented as an intimate portrait of an unpretentious, straightforward friendship, which extended to an artistic and professional partnership. With Coppola behind the camera, audiences will be treated to a cinematic portrait created by someone who has known Jacobs since he was just a 29-year-old with a great passion for grunge.
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Marc Jacobs burst onto the scene on November 3, 1992, when he was creative director of Perry Ellis—a brand carved out of practical American elegance—and decided to pay homage to Seattle’s vibrant grunge scene. He incorporated flannel shirts, plaid skirts, Dr. Martens, worn-out T-shirts, deliberately offbeat patterns, and wild hair into his designs. It was an aesthetic cataclysm that short-circuited the entire fashion establishment—and riled the likes of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, who reportedly burned samples out of disdain. Jacobs was fired on the spot. While the press railed against him, with fashion journalist Suzy Menkes at the forefront, high-profile fans began to emerge in support of Jacobs and his shocking presentation. For Gianni Versace, the collection “is fresh, very New York, and besides, he’s a very nice guy.” For Sofia Coppola, it is “an epiphany.”
