The Marc Jacobs Documentary Tells An Interesting Story In An Otherwise Flat Film

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MIFF In Review: Marc By Sofia, Directed by Sofia Coppola

16 August, 2026

Words by:

Sarah Palmieri

Sofia Coppola's latest A24 documentary, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2025, tells the sometimes-inspiring story of the iconic fashion designer Marc Jacobs.

An image of Sofia Coppola in her early 20s alongside the likes of Spike Jonze and Marc Jacobs in the Lower East Side, staging runways with Chloë Sevigny and referencing a scene that has since been replaced by the West Village clone, had me feeling nostalgic for better days. Ones I wasn’t alive for. In Coppola’s latest A24 film, Marc by Sofia, which premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, tells as much of the infamous fashion designer Marc Jacobs as it does of the broader fashion cosmos he has become an integral part of.

With that homage, I will say, if you are looking for a great film this might not be the one, but if a history lesson in the Jacobs canon and his mightiest touch (one that has traversed grunge, Louis Vuitton and Paris Hilton’s all-black 2023 Met Gala moment) sounds like your thing, it may be a flick for you.

Talk enough about other designers I prefer, like Vivienne Westwood, or reference Bob Fosse and Kim Gordon, and you’ve got my attention too.

Jacobs, is sometimes interviewed by his long-time friend Coppola in his New York studio, sometimes at Bookmarc (his bookstore on Bleecker Street), at other times in a silk pyjama set at his Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Westchester mansion (the Max Hoffman House, one of Wright’s last works before his death in 1959). The twin flames met in the early 90s, not long after Jacobs’ notorious line for Perry Ellis, the grunge collection, that featured a runway walked by the likes of Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, but perhaps drew the most attention when Kurt Cobain, who received pieces from the collection, famously burned them alongside Courtney Love. Fashion critic Suzy Menkes, then fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, responded by handing out pins that read “Grunge is Ghastly,” and Perry Ellis went on to fire Jacobs and kill the collection.

For Jacobs, whose most eye-catching accessory amid his uniform of black tracksuiting is a gun-sized vape, the film catches him preparing for his Spring 2024 collection, officially titled Wonder but better known in coverage as his “paper doll” show. Oversized coats with enlarged buttons and a handbag the size of half the body (one I would die for), along with teased hair raised to the nines, is what we get of the show until the final showcase. Amid flimsy models and Robert Therrien’s giant folding table and chairs (on loan from the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and doubling as a nod to the collection’s 40th-anniversary milestone for the label), Jacobs holds the runway at the Park Avenue Armory. He’s nervous, I’m not sure why; the crowd is frankly less intimidating and less dressed than Sydney Fashion Week (which is saying something).

Fashion films, whether it be Ralph Lauren’s or this, have a way of often skipping the difficult details, drug dependencies and rock-and-roll-dom that are such a crucial part of what makes them, not for the upper sense, but stylistically, who they are and how they become. This film is far from being upheld with the Alexander McQueen documentary, or even the Margiela one, whose main appeal lies in dealing with the unsolved mystery of who it is. It is rather bland, but Marc Jacobs’ story isn’t, and that is the saviour of what might otherwise be forgotten.

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