SOFIA STYLE: If Sofia Coppola ever tires of filmmaking, she has a second career waiting in the wings. At least that’s French Vogue editor in chief Carine Roitfeld’s assessment after working with the Oscar-winning director on the Condé Nast book’s December-January issue, which hits newsstands in Paris this week. “She was a natural,” enthused Roitfeld. “She could replace me tomorrow. She’s got the right eye. She’s energetic, she’s gifted and she’s got taste.”
French Vogue traditionally invites celebrities to guest edit its holiday number. Catherine Deneuve did the honors last year. Roitfeld called the collaboration with Coppola more personal. “Sofia’s of our generation,” she said. “We share the same references. She’s in the heart of film and fashion and she knows music. And then she was very involved in everything. She really got into it.” Indeed, Coppola posed for a raft of stylish photos by everyone from Craig McDean to David Sims. “She got hair extensions and she even posed [semi] nude,” said Roitfeld.
Mario Testino shot the black-and-white cover of Coppola outfitted in — you guessed it — a Marc Jacobs-designed evening dress. Coppola also contributed plenty of her own pictures, not to mention other content. She picked her favorite fashion and accessories looks for spring, including a 6.15-carat Harry Winston diamond heart pendant (“Sofia loves diamonds,” laughed Roitfeld); provided her list of style icons, and asked stars, including Faye Dunaway and Pedro Almodovar, to give their five favorite films.
Coppola, who’s living in Paris for a film based on Marie-Antoinette, recruited her fabulous friends and family, too. Quentin Tarantino sent in 20-year-old tapes of an interview he conducted with “Conan The Barbarian” director John Milius; Dennis Hopper interviewed Pop Art icon Ed Ruscha, and Coppola provided an e-mail exchange with her famed father, Francis Ford Coppola, of advice about filmmaking. — Robert Murphy
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