Diane Pernet at the latest edition of her fashion film festival

Diane Pernet is a name that is synonymous with fashion and cinema. The New Yorker, who became a fashion writer, blogger and fashion videographer from New York, was one of the first – if not the first – fashion blogger to start her own blog, A shaded view on fashion, back in 2005. Now, looking back, it ‘s crazy to think about what has happened to fashion and blogging in the last 16 years. It literally triggered a storm.

Shortly after launching its blog, Pernet launched a film festival called A shaded view at the Fashion Film Festival, focusing on the intersection of fashion and film. Before this festival, fashion films were considered just advertisements for brands, or worse, just for selling a product.

Now, fashion films are becoming more mainstream, creating a multi-layered narrative around fashion icons like Karl Lagerfeld, and being interdisciplinary, penetrating dance, photography and music.

As the pandemic pushed the luxury online retail trade, causing the e-commerce boom. With holiday shopping in full swing, luxury fashion brands depend on videos now, more than ever– whether it is a live broadcast online shopping events or flat video shopping.

Obviously, it’s more than just money. For this year’s 13th edition of the world’s top fashion film festival, Pernet has hired four curators to show the world what fashion film is all about. She talks about her top jury, the upcoming filmmakers and the freshest new venue in Paris.

What makes this year’s festival different from the others?

Diane Pernet: This is the first physical event I have had in the last two years. For this edition, I decided to have four outside editors, something I had never done before. I chose four topics and then, their curators: conscious fashion curated by Bandana Tewari, Digital Fashion curated by Fabricant / Amber Jae Slooten, Black Spectrum curated by Melissa Alibo, and Fashion moves curated by Dr. Alexandra Murray-Leslie, which are fashion movies driven by spontaneous socially mediated ways of pop music, styling and choreography like Tiktok.

What are some of the highlights of this year’s program?

There will be a discussion on the subject Creating your world for Metaverse with Fabricant, Amber will come straight from Miami Basel to this discussion, who is a master in this field, the French performance artist Orlan, who has already made a second robot from her body, and Alex Murray Leslie, who works with technology in performance and has a more academic approach to where we are going in the future.

Each year, how do you choose the big jury? It is always a combination of creative talents in many genres and industries that go far beyond fashion.

This year’s jury chairman is Bruce LaBruce and working with him has been a pleasure as he is fully engaged, we talk a lot and yes, I always have a fairly different jury from artists like the wonderful Unskilled Worker to musicians Roisin Murphy, Alex Murray Leslie and Daphne Guinness, fashion designers LUTZ and Andre Walker, art curator at Tate Modern Osei Bonsu and others. I like different views. I have never dealt with fashion clichés and the jury is always a reflection of that.

What can you say about the rise of fashion filmmaking? It used to be such a specialized art, but I think it has become more commercial.

Is true. Now there is no brand, big or small, that does not create fashion movies. Of course, during the lockdown, many designers were forced to think of films against catwalks. Some of the most successful were Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga with the Simpsons. He is always at the forefront of the game when it comes to innovative ideas and a bit of irony. Probably, in the beginning, it was more about product promotion and now it is more about storytelling.

Are there any up-and-coming fashion filmmakers you would like to mention?

I really like the work of Francis Wintour. I discovered his work at ASVOFF10 and it is wonderful to watch his work evolve. I really like the movies of KidSuper / Colm Dillon, Safdie brothers, Thomas Gerard, he made a movie called “La Malle”, which is almost Costa-Gavras quality, Bruce LaBruce and I were talking about it and he thought it was what it must have been James Bond.

What is the best part of this year’s film festival?

Probably the best thing that has happened now is that ASVOFF has a new home in 35/37, which is the latest venture from the Comme des Garcons. It is located at the Hotel de Coulanges on the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois in Paris and is dedicated to creating, exchanging community. It is a place for fashion, art, dance, music and of course cinema. Working with the company president, Adrian Joffe is truly out of a dream. And he has a dream team. I can not tell you how happy I am there. That was exactly what Paris was missing and I’m glad I have a new home.

For more information visit film festival website the Diane Pernet’s blog. Follow Diane Pernet on Instagram @asvof.