Sofia Coppola On Fashion Collaborations And Filming ‘Priscilla’
An award-winning film director and fashion muse-turned designer, SOFIA COPPOLA is an aesthete with influence and vision. Here, she tells CHLOE STREET about the art of creative collaboration, the making of Priscilla, and the joy of designing her perfect knit
When it comes to marrying style and storytelling, Sofia Coppola is something of an expert. From the supremely decadent, saccharine costumes of her 2006 feature film Marie Antoinette to the label-heavy wardrobes of 2013’s The Bling Ring, her movies are catnip for lovers of fashion; films that not only boast great scripts and celebrity casts but are cleverly crafted to be cohesive visual worlds. Each title’s aesthetic often starts with a mood board or color palette – or, in the case of Marie Antoinette, a box of Ladurée macarons, which Coppola presented to costume designer Milena Canonero to denote the specific pastel-hued interpretation of 18th-century Versailles she desired.
“I do think about fashion history when I work on my films; it’s a big part of creating a character and world,” Coppola, 52, tells PORTER. “Costume design helps me define who the characters are – how they dress tells you something about them. When I work with a costume designer, I have an idea of the character and some ideas of what they might wear, and then the designer proposes what they think in that spirit. Fashion is also a marker of the time, so every little detail is important – as much in costume as in the sets.”
Born in New York to film-maker parents (her father is the American director Francis Ford Coppola; her mother the artist and documentary film-maker Eleanor Coppola), Coppola studied Fine Art and Photography at CalArts School of Art before transitioning into the family industry with her feature-length directorial debut, the coming-of-age drama The Virgin Suicides (1999). Thanks to this fine-art training, her process always begins with archive image research: “My relationship with photography started as a teenager in the ’80s, looking at fashion magazines,” says Coppola, who now lives in New York with her family following a stint in Paris. “I would also go to art fairs with my mother, who encouraged me to collect photography.”
Now the Academy Award-winning director, who just celebrated 20 years since the release of her cult film Lost in Translation, has turned her artistic attention to a knitwear capsule designed in collaboration with the 120-year-old Scottish cashmere house Barrie. “When I work in fashion, it feels similar to when I work with a costume designer – I’m expressing what I have in mind and they know how to interpret it with their expertise,” says Coppola, who worked with Barrie’s artistic director, Augustin Dol-Maillot, to design the 17-piece mix-and-match collection of knits. “I’ve always been fascinated by Sofia’s precision, in terms of looks and attitude,” says Dol-Maillot. “She always finds the perfect balance between timeless pieces and a modern silhouette.”
“Costume design helps me define who the characters are – how they dress tells you something about them. Fashion is also a marker of the time, so every little detail is important – as much in costume as in the sets
”Sofia Coppola
After sharing references, the pair found they were “totally on the same page” and set about designing a chic but comfortable travel wardrobe of luxe cashmere basics. “The kind of pieces that are so versatile, you can bring them on a trip and look great and comfy on a flight, but can also be dressed up a little for a business meeting or dinner,” says Coppola, whose favorites are the wear-anywhere cashmere jumpsuit and a black button-front military jacket. “I also wanted warm pants you could wear to run around New York in the winter – which, strangely, are difficult to find.”
Many a Pinterest board and TikTok montage has been dedicated to Sofia Coppola’s personal style, which is an exercise in elevated simplicity with a kooky twist – think loosely tailored separates, ballet flats, striped knits and men’s shirts. The Barrie collection infuses beautifully crafted heritage cashmere with her understated, intellectual style DNA. “This meeting of minds is exactly why our customers will love this collaboration. Having not stocked Barrie on NET-A-PORTER before, our EIPs will be delighted to dive into the world of the brand, all through the lens of Sofia Coppola,” says NET-A-PORTER’s market director Libby Page, who lists the cardigans as a favorite. “I’ll pair them with a true-blue denim jean and Mary Jane flat shoes for quintessential Parisian style. It’ll be the understated attitude that I am sure Sofia was aiming for when she co-designed this collection.”
Alongside military-inspired cashmere jackets and button-front cardigans, there are throw-on-and-go cropped black cashmere pants and horizontal-striped jumpers – both Coppola signatures: “When it comes to what I want to wear, I prefer something discreet, classic and easy,” says the mother-of-two. “I’m probably stuck in my first loves from growing up in the ’80s and ’90s – I always adored Chanel and those knit cardigans that Barrie makes, and I loved Helmut Lang in the ’90s and Marc Jacobs’ classic pieces.”
“When I read Priscilla’s story, I was struck by the contrast of a young girl dating the world’s biggest star, and the fact that her coming-of-age remained so relatable to any young girl of any time
”Sofia Coppola
In addition to the Barrie collaboration, Coppola’s latest project is the feature film Priscilla, which explores Priscilla Presley’s early years at Graceland. This, Coppola’s eighth film, starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, is based on the memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. “When I read Priscilla’s story, I was struck by the contrast of a young girl dating the world’s biggest star, and the fact that her coming-of-age remained so relatable to any young girl of any time,” says Coppola, explaining that she was “deeply touched” by the details Priscilla shared, which were both personal and completely relatable. “Elvis and Priscilla are an iconic couple, but until now we never knew much about the relationship from her point of view.”
The movie was shot in Toronto on a shoestring budget in just 30 days, which made sequencing and costumes difficult to keep track of. “Cailee [Spaeny, who plays Priscilla] would go from being a 14-year-old schoolgirl in the morning to a bee-hived young woman, pregnant with her first child, in the afternoon,” says Coppola. “I am so grateful for my costume designer Stacey Battat for keeping us all straight on where we were and in what year!”
Coppola documents her research process on an Instagram account she launched just a year ago (she already has nearly 600,000 followers), sharing, for example, images from William Eggleston’s 1984 series, ‘Graceland’ (the photographer’s portraits of Elvis’s unoccupied home), which provided a visual starting point for the look and feel of Priscilla. As for the delay in embracing social media: “I’m pretty private, so I didn’t connect with the idea of sharing so much about yourself, what you eat or where you are all the time. But when I was working on my book and starting Priscilla, I thought it would be the best way to share images and inspiration with a young audience,” she says. “I look at it like a scrap book or magazine layout.”
A consummate curator, Coppola’s career has centered on compiling, devising and delivering aesthetic worlds. To add clothing design to the matrix feels like a natural step. “I think people who work in fashion were the oddballs in school; the misfits – so there is unity in finding your people, and I feel that kinship with those in fashion,” says Coppola. “We were the kids that didn’t dress like everyone else.”
Priscilla is out now in US movie theaters and set to hit UK movie theaters on January 5, 2024