/ THE FORCE BEHIND
THE FESTIVAL
Diane Pernet is one of the most recognisable yet enigmatic faces in fashion. A true icon of the industry, Diane is famous for her inimitable personal style and trailblazing initiatives that consistently champion the avant-garde. Her career is considered prolific in her dedication to uplifting creativity across fashion, film, as well as discovering some of the most note-worthy talent shaping the globe.
Before cementing her reputation as a digital media maverick in Paris, where she helped pioneer the fashion blogging medium through her platform A Shaded View on Fashion—while writing for the early digital editions of Elle and Vogue—Diane spent her formative years in New York designing an eponymous womenswear brand. As an offspring to her 2006 film festival, You Wear It Well, Diane founded the world's first international fashion film festival ASVOFF in 2008, which has over the years helped to develop ‘fashion film’ as the popular genre it is today.
ASVOFF’s mission is to bridge the worlds of fashion and cinema, worlds which Pernet believes are deeply connected through their powers of storytelling. ASVOFF provides a dynamic platform for innovative filmmakers, designers, and artists to present their work in a way that challenges the conventional boundaries of both indusries.
Pernet hosts ASVOFF annually in Paris, then takes it on the road to screen at prestigious international institutions and events like the Guggenheim, the Barbican, Art Basel Miami and the Cannes Film Festival. Genre-bending and groundbreaking, ASVOFF has inspired audiences far and wide with its programme featuring a diverse spectrum of figures from fashion and cinema, spanning Academy Award-nominated directors and luxury’s largest megabrands, to indie filmmakers and designers on the cutting edge of the creative industries.
Diane has garnered many honours throughout her career including having been featured on stage at a seminal fashion exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, inducted as a member of the BoF 500 by The Business of Fashion, and captured on film through cameo appearances in Robert Altman’s ‘Prêt-à-Porter’, Roman Polanski’s ‘The Ninth Gate’, ‘Emily in Pairs’, ‘Zoolander 2’ and more.