Diane Pernet: “I like to support, to empower new creative talents.”

Washington DC-born, Philadelphia-raised, New York-forged, Paris-blossomed, globally-acclaimed Pernet is one of those fashion figures whose unique role transcends any single professional category. For now, let’s just state that she’s a cultural pulse-taker. Fascinated by artistic expression since childhood, it took a journey to merge her two passions, the film and the fashion, and filming the fashion and fashioning the film. She first went to study film and communication, then started reportage photography, “not fashion photography. You know why? Because I used to look at Guy Bourdin’s work and think if I couldn't be better than this, I shouldn't bother. He was my icon, I guess.” Her ever-growing passion for transmitting emotion through a camera is still palpable. “John Cassavetes, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard,” her pantheon of cinema’s geniuses keeps on flowing, as she holds her cup of basil tea. “I was more into filmmakers at first, than I was into fashion designers.” Yet fashion, with its unforeseen depths and multifaceted nature, eventually dawned on her. She studied it briefly, for a few months, at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York. “I learned textiles, draping, fashion illustration, pattern making. I had great teachers, but I hated that time. If I had stayed any longer in there, I would have lost all desire for fashion.” Pernet has a soft voice but does not mince her words. Determined, she launched her own brand and nurtured its growth for 13 years. “Thirteen, right? So, it must have been okay!” she adds, with a smile. “I had a license in Tokyo, the highlight of my fashion career,” she quips. “It was about mutual respect, a completely different mentality. Japan holds a special place in my heart.”

Still in New York, she witnessed a kind of hell on Earth as the AIDS epidemic began to spread. “In New York, I lived in the West Village, a couple streets down from Christopher Street, which was the main gay street.” Home of the Stonewall Inn, and subsequently the 1969 Stonewall riots. After, the street became an internal symbol of pride for LGBTQ+ rights movement. “Today, there is some medication, and you can live with it. But then, it was a death certificate. I remember a good friend of mine. He was working at Saint Laurent and curated the 25-year archival YSL traveling exhibition. He had just slept with one person, and it was over. Can you imagine?” Pernet recalls the lethal pall that shrouded the city. “'With no exaggeration, 85 to 90 percent of my neighbourhood were dead or dying.” In 1990, she flew to Paris. “It was horrific. I thought, I can't live like this. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I can't live like this.”

“A shaded view of fashion, I said shaded, not jaded.”

Freshly arrived in Paris in 1991, she began her career as a costume designer for Israeli director Amos Gitai on the film “Golem, l'Esprit d'Exile,” having previously met him in New York. “On set, there was the iconic Henri Alekan, who had work with Jean Cocteau for “La Belle et la Bête,” in 1946. He was 87 but a spirit and energy like he was 40. And Hanna Schygulla, Fassbender’s fetish actress. That was the closest I ever came to Fassbinder himself.” And Parisian fashion world took her by storm, or vice versa. “I never intended to become a journalist, but I’ve met Tiffany Godoy, now head of editorial content at Vogue Japan, and she gave my first job for Composite Magazine. She believed in me for whatever reason, so I did it.” She started to write for ELLE, the French Vogue, Joyce, covering shows of London, Milan, Paris. Her flair for discovering new talents shone immediately, and she began scouting promising creatives for the Hyères Festival from 2002 until 2011.

In 2003, she teamed with digital artist Alex Czetwertynski, to create a series of short films, “Fashioned Out”, commissioned by Galeries Lafayette. “Alex is the sweetest, and a visionary.  During Fashion Week, we started filming at 9 am, until the after parties. Then we did the voice-over, the team did the editing, through the night. If you were passing by the windows of the Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann, at night when it's quiet, you could hear my voice.”  Hear, and read. In perpetual quest for creative independence, she launched her own land of expression. “When I was writing for magazines, I had to cover advertising, basically.” We’re in February 2005, where Internet is babbling and blogging was definitely not a professional activity. “A Shaded View of Fashion” was born, “shaded” referring to her shaded lenses, nothing shady to read here. 

“I like to support people, to empower people. If I do not like something, I’d rather not write about it.”

What interests Pernet is meeting people and connecting them with one another. Creative ones, of course. The ones that have something interesting to say, or at least an interesting way of expressing themselves. So, she set up a festival, as one does. “You start from scratch!” Pernet decided to fuse her passion for fashion and cinema, committed to elevating the concept of “fashion film” on a worldwide stage. The first edition took place in 2006 as a curated program in Los Angeles and was entitled ‘You Wear It Well,’ referencing the 1972 Rod Stewart song. It then landed in Paris in 2008 with its final name ‘A Shaded View of Fashion Festival,’ and it traveled. “I always wanted to be international. I did not want to be a New York designer; I wanted to be a designer. I never wanted ASVOFF to be a French fashion film festival, but an international one. I am interested in creativity wherever it is. That’s just my DNA.” And she started to tour the world. “It was the first fashion film festival in the world, so museums wanted to have their part. We went at the Guggenheim, Bilbao, CPH Docs [a film festival in Copenhagen], the MoMu in Antwerp several times… We went to 12 countries each year!” But the question remains? What is a fashion film? Is it an ad? How to showcase clothes? Are clothes characters? “It is about storytelling. That’s what I like. It can take so many forms. A fashion film is what you'll take on it. How you will tell a story.” 

"What interests me is all that is relevant to our time."

ASVOFF is an agora, a welcoming place gathering communities from different horizons. It had developed over years and now permeates creativity and culture from all sides, from social, philosophical, technological, ecological matters: Fashion stands at the crossroads. “We keep on introducing new categories: Mental Health in Fashion; Unleashing the power of AI; Black Spectrum, featuring only black productions; Chinese Films; Queer Archive,” she says listing recent additions. Two editions ago, she unveiled Climate Warriors, a category dedicated to children. “There are two subcategories: one for children aged 6 to 12, and one for teenagers from 13 to 19 years old. Kids must make a 30-second film, and teens a 60-second film, about how they see the future. They’re the ones most concerned about sustainability. I still find it difficult to convince fashion insiders to let their children participate.” In the last edition, one child filmed himself applying bandages to trees. Additionally, the jury for this category is composed of children. “They are judged by their peers!”

“Last edition, Michèle Lamy was president of the jury. And I was thinking, who could follow her? I am so glad Willy Chavarria confirmed, he is so relevant in what he is doing.”

The 17th edition, set to take place from November 13th-16th, 2025, already has us waiting in anticipation. First, the President of the jury. Mexican American fashion designer Willy Chavarria, honoured in 2024 with Designer of the Year at the Latin American Fashion Awards as well as being named CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year for the second time in a row. He rose in New York, then made his way to Paris, much like Pernet, when he entered the Official Calendar of Paris Fashion Week Menswear in January 2025. The climax of his sensational show featured a recording of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon calling for “compassion” for the LGTBIQ+ community from President Donald Trump. “It was amazing. That was the highlight of the season for me. He passed on so much emotion.” Also, the next edition will feature another theme, « Future Vintage », exploring what vintage fashion could encompass in 20 years. “It’s curated by Byronesque, she’s amazing. She’s also the one who introduced me to our sponsor, Worldnet, which is the reference transport company for luxury products. And interestingly enough, Worldnet is the one that brought the Willy Chavarria collection to Paris.” Go figure, we have come full circle.

“Dover Street Market is a world I feel comfortable in.”

The first Dover Street Market opened in September 2004 at 17–18 Dover Street in Mayfair, London, where Pernet was immediately drawn to the radical concept store founded by Comme des Garçon's Rei Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffe. “I met Adrian Joffe when I was the fashion editor for Joyce in the ’90s and I remember when he started 35-37 in Paris as a cultural space. He is a master, truly.” In May 2024, the place was repurposed, marking the arrival of Dover Street Market in Paris, which now stands as the Parisian home of Pernet’s festival. 

“I love colour, it gives you energy. My place has lots of colours. I just prefer wearing black because it makes me feel stronger. “

Pernet’s style is way more than a striking, recognisable, trademark silhouette. That’s why it appears here as this portrait draws to a close. If the word “uniform” comes to mind, it definitely does not apply to her in the sense of a uniform echoing sameness, binding diverse souls under a single standard. “The reason behind my look is very banal. I'm short! And I feel I was meant to be tall, and since God didn’t feel that way, I wear platform shoes, and I adjust my hair to give the appearance of being five foot seven.” In September 2000, fashion journalist extraordinaire Suzy Menkes interviewed Yohji Yamamoto for The New York Times and granted the world with that famous quote of the master of noir: “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy – but mysterious. But above all black says this: I don’t bother you, don’t bother me.” For Pernet, it echoed deeply. “When I read that, it could have come out of my mouth.”

Pernet has been wearing her look “for almost four decades, so it’s just normal to me.” When she arrived in Paris, she felt “a cultural shock” when she realised people kept staring at her. “In New York, nobody cares. I remembered my ex-husband saying that people were looking because they’re scared. Why are they scared? I am pretty easy going.” Though now, glances and comments simply slide off her, she once found them tough to endure. “I’ve heard everything, “Halloween”, “Mardi Gras”, “Morticia Adams” and I thought, “So what? She looks great!” In the beginning, it really bothered me, but it doesn’t anymore.”

If one wanted to see Diane Pernet’s wearing a neon green jacket for a fashion show, “it happened once last season and it won’t happen again! It was hysterical.” Donald Schneider, “the one who was art director of French Vogue when American writer and actress Joan Juliet Buck was editor in chief, from 1994 to 2001, and the one who introduced Karl Lagerfeld to H&M,” recently acquired EHLO, “a heritage ski brand. To support him, I wore the neon green jacket one day, and went to the Sacai show during Paris Fashion Week. It was really strange. People were in shock. I’ll never wear colour again for fashion shows, I’m a discreet person. Even if it is a really well-made piece. I wanted to support. Because I love to support my friends, and to support talents.”

Application for ASVOFF Festival remain open until September 30, 2025. Go on!  To submit a project, it could hardly be simpler. You need only visit https://filmfreeway.com/ASVOFF Regular news is published on ASVOFF website and on Instagram.

Reuben Attia