Today, American filmmaker Sofia Coppola premieres her latest project – a collaboration with historic Scottish knitwear house Barrie, comprising a number of pieces inspired by her personal style. ‘I will be living in it,’ she said when the collection was announced in May 2023.
Coppola, who made her feature film directorial debut in 1999 with Virgin Suicides, has become known for a distinctive aesthetic eye, where clothing is intrinsic. As such, she has been responsible for some of contemporary cinema’s most memorable fashion moments – from the conspicuous label-drenched wardrobe of the 2000s-set Bling Ring, Scarlett Johansson’s pink-hued wig in Lost in Translation, and the saccharine Rococo stylings of Marie Antoinette (including the much-mythologised glimpse of a Converse sneaker amid her recreation of 18th-century Versailles).
First look: Sofia Coppola’s collaboration with Barrie
But Coppola has been lauded for her own personal style, too. A longtime Chanel ambassador, her style is defined by simplicity and insouciance, oftentimes wearing simple sweaters, white shirts and jeans to events. ‘I like classic timeless, understated pieces for every day, without being too boring,’ she says.
‘She wears clothes extremely well,’ says Augustin Dol-Maillot, the artistic director of Barrie. ‘She has a true sense of fashion, but also a feeling for materials and details. She isn’t exuberant, her style is very on-point and precise, like the collection itself. You can know immediately what will work for her. She knows how to create a very personal mood, just like in her films.’
Coppola says she first discovered Barrie a few years ago through her connection with Chanel and has been a devotee of the house since. ’The pieces I’ve bought over the years I wear over and over again and they never look worn or pilly,’ she says, noting a particular affinity for the classic cardigans and men’s crew-neck sweaters. ’I love the idea that they’re meant to last a lifetime and can be brought back to be repaired if ever needed.’
Indeed, craftsmanship has been at the heart of the Barrie project since its founding in 1903. One of the oldest cashmere producers in Scotland, its Hawick mill sees Mongolian cashmere woven on both 70-year-old Bentley Cotton machines and more recent Shima Seiki machines, though the production of each garment is always done entirely by hand by trained artisans. In 2014, two years after being acquired by Chanel, the Barrie label was born. Helmed by Dol-Maillot – who previously worked with Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard at Chanel – it translates the house’s traditional craft and savoir-faire into more fashionably-minded pieces, albeit designed to last in the wearer’s wardrobe for decades to come.
For this new collaboration, Copolla and Dol-Maillot sought to create a capsule wardrobe primed for trips and travel, where pieces could be easily mixed and matched, worn together or apart. Colours span black, navy and grey, alongside moments of khaki and pink – all hues that appear in Coppola’s personal wardrobe – while the pieces themselves straddle comfort and elegance, whether a button-up cashmere jumpsuit or cashmere wool leggings and simple cashmere and silk T-shirts. For outerwear, there is a padded cashmere down jacket, and thick wool and silk cardigan studded with golden buttons. Stripes are a motif that appears throughout.
‘It’s a small travel wardrobe – my fantasy of what you would bring on a trip with pieces that go together that are comfortable and casual, but you still look put together,’ says Coppola. ‘You can wear the knit pants on the plane and then dress them up a little with the velvet knit cardigan for dinner in the hotel bar. That’s how I like to wear Barrie.
‘Travelling a lot came into mind – how to make packing easier and having what you want [in order] to feel good and comfortable wherever you are,’ she continues. ‘I thought about how when I get to a hotel for a work trip, I love the Barrie knit pants with a sweater to feel cosy but not look too messy in a nice hotel.’
The accompanying campaign was photographed by Melodie McDaniel – a longtime friend of Coppola, whom she first met while at college in the 1990s – and stars actress Margaret Qualley. ’I wanted it to look like snapshots of a weekend stay in Paris’, says Coppola, that were photographed in a hotel suite in the city. ‘I’m always inspired in Paris and Tokyo – I love to see how people dress there and there’s so much style and interest in fashion.’
As for how she defines the characters in her own films – the latest of which is Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year – Coppola says clothing is intrinsic to her characters. ’How they dress tells you something about them,’ she says. ‘I worked with Augustin in a similar way that I do with costume designers, where 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.
‘I really enjoy that I can ask for what I have in mind, and they have the expertise on how to do it and how to interpret an idea into reality.’
Barrie + Sofia Coppola is available now.
