Exclusive Interview With Diane Pernet
0 comment Wednesday, May 7, 2014 |
I think the best way to understand fashion is probably about getting around the people that knows the designers, that understand their doubts and fears, that probably have done it too... I choose that woman for her peculiar vision, her unique tastes, for her love and passion for fashion but not only ! Diane Pernet has become one person i do admire ! and her kindness and originality was just what i was expecting for such an interestin protagonist, only the world of fashion can offer ! our meeting was delightfull if you allow me to call it like that !!

- First of all thanks for this interview and for havin given me a chance to meet you. So im as curious as everyone, so for me the most important question to start with is where does your look come from ? How do you call it ? And what's the rule to build such a fierce and fearless outfit ?
D.P : Let�s just call it minimal baroque. My look does not really come from anywhere in particular. If I have to draw on references you can say Pasolini, Goya, Marie Antoinette, Sicilian widows in neorealistic films. The rule is �.no rules. I just like what I like which is long flowing skirts, simple shirts, platform shoes, high hair, silver insect pins, sunglasses and a veil. It�s more about the elements I suppose but that is what builds any look, isn�t it?
- Then i will probably sound boring with that question but why have you launch a blog ? What was the main reason ? Did you expect that much buzz around it ?
D.P : I used to be an editor for Elle.com and then Vogueparis.com and before that for Disciplefilms where I wrote Diane�s diaries and one day I decided that it would be nice to just have my own blog and report on what interests me on a daily basis. I did not expect anything but I�m happy if it feeds people.
- So you're also known as a stylist. But tell me, have you stop designing ? And why ?
D.P : I was a designer under my own label for 13 years in NYC with a license in Tokyo for 5 years. It was hard for me to leave NYC and to abandon my business but at the end of 1990 the city was a mess and I was not inspired to live there anymore. I moved here with no strategy or plans. I chose Paris because I thought if I want to stay in the fashion business I had a few choices: Paris, Milan, London and since Paris is the center of the fashion world, I decided to move here. I knew one person when I moved here 18 years ago. It was very difficult but no regrets. I never wanted to stop designing I just did not want to live in NYC any longer and if someone had offered me a nice bit of cash and said , continue�. I would have, gladly. But I did not want to start from zero all over again, not as a designer and I had no interest to work for someone else.
- There's a kind of mystery around you. I cant easily find a lot of things surrounding your past etc. Is it part of the myth ? So if you could describe the start of your career, what would you say ?
D.P : It is actually very easy to find out about my past. If you go on my site www.ashadedviewonfashion.com and click memory one of the files on the right hand side of the screen you will even see me with flat hair, also a photo I took of my first husband. If you click the file called history you will even find images of some of my designs.
The start of my career, which one? I studied film in college, did reportage photography, took 9 months of classes at FIT and Parsons before opening up my own brand. Did that for 13 years, moved to Paris, became a costume designer on a few films, then an assistant to the producer at CBC, Fahion Files, then a Fashion editor for Joyce Ma�s magazine from Hong Kong, Joyce, then Elle.com, Vogueparis.com, journalist for independent magazines, opened my blog, consultant for WHITE Club in Milan, talent scout for Hyeres festival in the South of France, co-editor in chief for ZOO Magazine, curator for fashion and photography festival in Santiago de Compostela and the founder of both www.ashadedviewonfashion.com and the first fashion film festival in Paris, ASVOFF.

- So you told me you adore the duo behind the hype brand Boudicca, i read that you also like the designers from Three as Four, same for jewelry designer Waris Ahluwalia and it's also written that you're a fan of Take Hirakawa. So who are the other people that you admire ? What inspires you in your everyday life ?
D.P : My friends inspire me, books inspire me, films inspire me, do you need that I name names? I admire my friend Mr. Pearl, Kim Jones, Nicola Formichetti, Robb Young, Pierre Gonnord, Miguel Villalobos, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, David Lynch, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Todd Hayes, Neil LaBute, Kelly Cutrone, directors from the past like�Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John Cassavetes, Pasolini, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Fellini. Also Abel Ferrera, Sean Penn, Dennis Hopper� and finally we have an icon for our times, Barack Obama, he inspires me.
- So apart from all the things you're currently involved in, is there other things you would have liked to do ? For example, when you were a little girl which job would you have chosen ?
D.P : When I was very young I was like many little girls, I wanted to be a ballet dancer but I was never going to grow tall enough for that.
- By the way this question is a bit personal and really private and you dont necessary need to answer but i cant prevent myself from asking. So Diane, do you have children ? Is your heart taken ?
D.P : I was married 4 times, that was enough for a lifetime and no, never had any children and never wanted any. Had a brief moment of pure vanity with my first husband who was very sexy and handsome, he wanted a child and for a minute I considered it, but children are not dolls and neither one of us was up to the challenge/responsibility, no regrets.
- The world is in crisis. What do you think it's gonna happen in fashion and art because of those financial issues ?
D.P : It�s like a house of cards. I�m not sure what will happen next, recession dressing? As for the art world, up until very recently it looked like the safest investment but even that has changed over the past ten days.
- Obama has been elected tough. Do you think it's gonna change something ? Are you one of those people from the fashion world like Anna Wintour, who supported him ? why ?
D.P : He�s earnest, he�s smart, he has surrounded himself with a very strong team and I believe if anybody can make a CHANGE, he can. I could not be happier, I never thought this would happen in my lifetime and I am over the moon that it did.

- The world of fashion is a lot associated with superficiality. What do you think about that statement ?
D.P : Sure, it is true but that is why I am an insider/outsider, that aspect of the fashion world does not interest me at all.
- You're always wearing dark glasses but why ? Is it your way to remain protected ? Do you wanna hide ?
D.P : It places a distance between me and the rest of the world, hide, not really, protect, probably.
- By the way, I've always wondered, when are you gonna released your own magazine ?
D.P : I don�t really think it is the moment, do you? For now I will continue to curate my blog and make films. In the future I might make a best of the blog as a book�I think it is a good document of our times.
- It's also very personal but what do you carry in your bag ? I've seen a camera the day of our meeting but what else ?!!
D.P : Depends on the day and where I�m going, if I�m traveling there is my computer, my digital lumix, maybe my video camera, powder, lipstick, passport/id, keys, umbrella, you never know here when it will start to rain, a good book� It�s always far too heavy.
- If there was a secret to beauty, what would it be ?
D.P : Stay out of the sun.
- Finally what is from your point of view stylish ?
D.P : Dress to please yourself.

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