What draws the audience closest to Sofia Coppola’s characters is not the setting or the action, but their shared mental state – a solitude that feels both universal and inevitable. Sofia Coppola’s characters glow with light, gentleness and purity, embodying the kind of person we aspire to become. But instead of being unrealistically positive and annoying, they are appealing because of their realness and imperfections. This glow is transferred to the character’s looks – light colours, soft textures, floral prints amplified by the back light and blond hair – almost creating a halo around their heads. The sisters in The Virgin Suicides appeared luminous, almost untouchable, while no one could truly grasp the depth of their despair and in this lies a subtle remedy: garments could also form a soft boundary between what is felt inside and what is shown outside, protecting the real vulnerability of seemingly careless young girls.

“Coppola shows this tenderness in a subtle and specific way: through outfits”

Her films explore many shades of loneliness; what tenderness means and how it exemplifies our humanity. What creates a Sofia Coppola phenomenon is the versatility of this combination, demonstrated perhaps most clearly in Somewhere. Despite the wall built by the loneliness and misunderstanding between father and daughter, tenderness is what creates a little door in it being a universal human language. Coppola shows this tenderness in a subtle and specific way: through outfits. The little childish drawings on the cast of his fractured arm, messy blond hair in the morning, the ceremonial dress Cleo wears in Somewhere to celebrate her father’s award – all these little symbols of softness are gestured by clothing details, making them carriers of this sentiment.

Clothing in cinema often becomes a quiet extension of character – a way to translate not only mood or temperament, but also a visual aid to a narrative. Sofia Coppola’s films situates clothing within the precise environment the characters are in, while at the same time highlighting the unconventional aspects. By providing an extremely chic lookbook for Marie Antoinette – accessorised by magnificent cakes and splashes of champagne – Coppola enables the watcher to empathise with the melancholy of the young girl hidden by the ruffles, custard and pearls.

“Coppola’s films insist on the versatility of pastels and silhouettes, immunising her movies from beige clichés”

Above all, Coppola’s characters are submerged in the pastel and the clothing wedges seamlessly into this chromatic harmony, absorbing characters into the visual rhythm of their surroundings. This alignment becomes the desire to dress like we’re in a Sofia Coppola film; the comfort of being enveloped in the atmosphere that emanates the feeling of being lost in translation and matches one’s self-perception – the feeling of belonging.

“Sofia Coppola creates a space where tender fabric colours are not only warming and cozy, but also unemotional and distancing”

Coppola’s films insist on the versatility of pastels and silhouettes, immunising her movies from beige clichés and avoiding the artificiality of the low budget music video for hopelessly in love teenage girls. This, however, does not distance her from the young girls – the delicate colours and warmth of characters’ wardrobes create warmth. However, the pastel palette could transform from soft to cold and unemotional sentiment like it does in Priscilla – these tones accompanied with strict and ceremonial clothing shapes are “on the Elvis side”; they are what he likes, not what she does. Sofia Coppola creates a space where tender fabric colours are not only warming and cozy, but also unemotional and distancing – often times, both.

To embody the fashion of Sofia Coppola, you don’t want to dress exactly like her characters, but rather as if you yourself were in her film. By letting clothing embody tenderness as an antidote to loneliness, Sofia Coppola awakens in us the desire to step into her world – to dress as if we, too, belonged to her films. In the gentle silhouettes and muted tones of her characters we sense not only style, but the promise that solitude can be softened. What she offers is a quiet form of hope: a little more kindness toward the world and each other.