Hailing from Hollywood royalty, this member of the storied Coppola clan is doing things her way.

Photographs by Daria Kobayashi Rich

Styling by Chris Horan

Coming from a line of&nbsp;cinematic royalty could disillusion some, but for writer, director,&nbsp;and photographer Gia Coppola, her family&rsquo;s force&nbsp;has&nbsp;spurred&nbsp;her on to create works that&nbsp;distinguish&nbsp;her&nbsp;in her own right.&nbsp;&nbsp;

She is, of course, the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather)&nbsp;and the niece of Roman and Sofia Coppola&mdash;the siblings responsible for&nbsp;Moonrise Kingdom,&nbsp;The Darjeeling&nbsp;Limited,&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Virgin Suicides&nbsp;among&nbsp;others.&nbsp;It is&nbsp;Gia&rsquo;s&nbsp;unique eye, however, that&nbsp;has cemented her as a master of multiple crafts, rendering the family name an interesting fact&nbsp;rather than&nbsp;a&nbsp;route in&nbsp;to the world of film.&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very fortunate to be surrounded by such inspiring people,&rdquo;&nbsp;she&nbsp;tells me.&nbsp;&ldquo;But I work very hard to also do things because of my own merit.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;

The multidisciplinary artist is perhaps most well known for&nbsp;her 2013 debut&nbsp;feature,&nbsp;Palo Alto,&nbsp;a coming-of-age tale which she both wrote and directed, based on a series of short stories&nbsp;of the same name&nbsp;by James Franco. The film was praised widely for the realism of the performances&nbsp;by&nbsp;Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer,&nbsp;and Nat Wolff. The project proved Gia&rsquo;s skills as a capable director and filmmaker beyond&nbsp;her&nbsp;family&rsquo;s name;&nbsp;and through a series of wonderfully nostalgic and visually&nbsp;stunning vignettes of high school life, it&nbsp;introduced&nbsp;us to her heart as well as her eye.&nbsp;

gia 5.jpg

Palo Alto&rsquo;s&nbsp;emphasis on&nbsp;beautiful&nbsp;cinematography was no doubt helped&nbsp;by Gia&rsquo;s background in photography&mdash;she studied at the prestigious Bard College in New York before her foray into film.&nbsp;&ldquo;I find that both mediums [moving image and photography] complement each other well. I always learn something when I do photography,&nbsp;or I use it as a test to play around with themes and ideas that interest me.&quot;&nbsp;

Today her medium-format photographs regularly grace the pages of magazines, with a distinctively rich&nbsp;color&nbsp;palette and&nbsp;an&nbsp;intimacy that gives a real sense of her relationship with her subjects (recent models include Florence Welch and Margot Robbie).

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gia&rsquo;s fondness&nbsp;for&nbsp;California and bond with the physicality of her home seeps into her images&mdash;be&nbsp;they&nbsp;dreamlike shots of girls in ethereal dresses picnicking in Joshua Tree&nbsp;or&nbsp;the more documentary-style snaps of Chateau&nbsp;Marmont&nbsp;during rush hour.&nbsp;&ldquo;I love the nature and the history behind the city [Los Angeles].&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve become very fascinated with the&nbsp;&ldquo;idea&rdquo;&nbsp;of Hollywood and what that means.

Just scrolling through Gia&rsquo;s&nbsp;Instagram, you can tell that the palette of LA&rsquo;s burnt-out sunsets and palm-tree-lined streets have helped shape the way she sees the world&nbsp;and the art she wants to create. Clear also&nbsp;is her love of fashion. Over the years she&rsquo;s been recruited by global fashion brands such as Zac Posen, Gucci,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Rodarte&nbsp;to bring her playful outlook to their promotional campaigns.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I&nbsp;think the process of&nbsp;fashion is very&nbsp; similar to making a movie. The amount of research and attention to detail.&nbsp; I feel very inspired by the way fashion can express a state of mind in a very imaginative way.&quot;&nbsp;

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This focus on fantasy and imagination is clear in Gia&rsquo;s work. She incorporates high-end luxury fashion into images and film with an attitude of sweet innocence&nbsp;that makes the pieces featured feel more like costumes&nbsp;than new-season items a brand is desperately trying to sell.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Now&nbsp;31, Gia has&nbsp;watched the industry grow into the influence-driven, content-obsessed world we now find ourselves in.&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very interested in the influence social media has on our culture&rsquo;s taste, education, politics,&nbsp;etc. I worry about it, and I wonder how can we take this new world and make it cinematic and connective again.&ldquo;&nbsp;

But really, that&rsquo;s exactly what she does with her own work. As we hurtle toward&nbsp;a future where more and more of what we watch is designed to be watched on an iPhone screen, there are certain artists who create things&nbsp;that&nbsp;we&nbsp;feel like we can&nbsp;really&nbsp;dive into,&nbsp;rather than&nbsp;just hold&nbsp;in our hands. Gia Coppola is one of them.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Clothing Fendi; Boots Givenchy

Dress Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

Clothing Chanel

Jacket Gucci

Dress Givenchy

Makeup: Tamah Krinsky

Hair: Danny Rishoff

Casting: Jen Jalouse

All Jewelry: <a href="https://www.tiffany.com/?siteid=1">Tiffany &amp; Co</a>

Photo Assistant: David Lopez

Stylist Assistants: Tyler Cunningham and Aliz&eacute;e H&eacute;not

Director Gia Coppola is More Than Her Last Name

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