Montreal isn’t New York, and here you don’t run into Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola on the street, across from Bookmarc, hanging out in Soho in the shade, near the studio. But on April 16, 2026, the documentary MARC BY SOFIA (2025) will premiere at the Cinéma du Musée, presented in collaboration with DresstoKILL magazine.
I got to see the film in advance, and it’s a film for fashionistas, fans of Sofia Coppola and Marc Jacobs, those with a nostalgic streak, film buffs who appreciate collage-style editing, and all artists who love to talk at length about the creative process.
MARC BY SOFIA
There’s no cell service in the theater, but that’s okay. Outside, it’s the early ’90s; everyone is wearing X-Girl’s two-tone T-shirt dresses, and the world is a collage of visual references that, almost magically, becomes designer Marc Jacobs’ Spring-Summer 2024 ready-to-wear collection.
Marc and Sofia (Sofia Coppola, the coolest director of the 2000s— The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation) met in 1993 when Sofia asked her mother to take her to a Perry Ellis fashion show. Marc Jacobs was at the helm of the brand from 1989 to 1993—the year of the iconic “grunge collection.”
Fashion gossip has always referred to it as the collection that got him fired from Perry Ellis—and Jacobs reveals that this isn’t true, but that he secretly enjoys the rumor and its air of scandal.
Marc Jacobs, when Sofia wonders how she heard about him back in ’93, tells her,“Because you’re you. You know about things.” And that’s the essence of what makes Sofia Coppola, Marc Jacobs, and their friendship and collaboration so cool. Because, without exaggerating, Marc and Sofia are two of the coolest people in the world.
Taking the form of a visual collage that, like Marc’s creative process during the development of the Spring/Summer 2024 collection and the runway show to present it, is packed with references, the film is an exploration of what “cool” means.
In addition to the pop-emotional montage, edited by Chad Sipkin, an interview with Marc conducted by Sofia serves as the film’s central thread. It’s more like a conversation between two old friends—they talk about Bob Fosse, graffiti-covered Vuitton bags, Marcel Duchamp, Elizabeth Taylor, his grandmother at Bergdorf Goodman, and *The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant*.
The motif of collage, artistic collaboration, and a patchwork of visual and stylistic references is the theme of this film and the heart of the artistic lives of the great visual artists.
The film makes you want to organize your personal archives, take more photos, go to the movies more often, and hunt for X-Girl miniskirts (the ones from the “outlaw” fashion show organized by Sofia Coppola, Kim Gordon, and Spike Jonze following a Marc Jacobs show in 1994).
Practical Information
Where? Cinéma du Musée, at 1379A Sherbrooke Street West
When?
Thursday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. – Montreal premiere, with Stéphane Le Duc, fashion journalist, columnist, and lecturer at UQAM’s École supérieure de mode. Presented in collaboration with DresstoKILL Magazine
What? Admission is $15.75, and for more information, click here
