Yin Xin, peintre du musée imaginaire de la Chine

Portrait

Diane Pernet

By Denyse Beaulieu
Photos : Vincent Lappartient

« I don’t wear this outfit to get noticed. Really. I wear it to please myself.”
In a husky voice so close to a whisper that, while leaning to hear it, you smell the church incense whiff of her signature perfume Avignon (from the Comme des Garçons Incense Series), Diane Pernet tells of a recent art show opening where she was rudely questioned about her appearance by another woman. As though her enigmatic trademark style – high-rise Pompadour with a veil, cat’s eye Alain Mikli sunglasses, ankle-length skirt and wedge sandals, invariably black, punctuated with scarlet lipstick – were a breach of the Parisian social contract, a shocking excess of narcissism.
Yet, when speaking with Diane Pernet, you realize that her hieratic style – a blend of Goya’s “Caprichos”, Sicilian widow, ancient Greek tragedian and geisha under the Black Rain – may be more of a retreat from the world, in order to see it better. Her blog, “Diane, a Shaded View on Fashion”, reveals a sharp, curious and generous outlook on contemporary creations, including fashion, but not exclusively. From Paris to Madrid and Bangkok to Hyères, from fashion shows to festivals and arty parties, Diane Pernet, with her digital camera, gleans pictures and stories from an aesthetic tribe including Boudicca’s designing duo, the team of Three As Four, jewellery designer/ Spike Lee actor Waris or Japanese freelance journalist Take Hirakawa (who, with his rock star style, may be one of the chicest men in the Paris fashion scene)… From post to post, these images form a family album of sorts, both tender and cosmopolitan. The site’s archive dispel some of the mystery surrounding the “dame en noir”: film studies, a first marriage and premature .widowhood, a flourishing career as a designer in New York in the 80’s/90’s – stylised and glamorous creations photographed by the likes of Mario Testino. These are the few relics of a bygone past. “When I left New York, I put everything away in a storeroom in Chelsea », explains Diane Pernet. “Years went by, I stopped paying… I don’t know what became of my things.”

	Portrait Diane Pernet By Denyse Beaulieu Photos : Vincent Lappartient « I don’t wear this outfit to get noticed. Really. I wear it to please myself.” In a husky voice so close to a whisper that, while leaning to hear it, you smell the church incense whiff of her signature perfume Avignon (from the Comme des Garçons Incense Series), Diane Pernet tells of a recent art show opening where she was rudely questioned about her appearance by another woman. As though her enigmatic trademark style – high-rise Pompadour with a veil, cat’s eye Alain Mikli sunglasses, ankle-length skirt and wedge sandals, invariably black, punctuated with scarlet lipstick – were a breach of the Parisian social contract, a shocking excess of narcissism. Yet, when speaking with Diane Pernet, you realize that her hieratic style – a blend of Goya’s “Caprichos”, Sicilian widow, ancient Greek tragedian and geisha under the Black Rain – may be more of a retreat from the world, in order to see it better. Her blog, “Diane, a Shaded View on Fashion”, reveals a sharp, curious and generous outlook on contemporary creations, including fashion, but not exclusively. From Paris to Madrid and Bangkok to Hyères, from fashion shows to festivals and arty parties, Diane Pernet, with her digital camera, gleans pictures and stories from an aesthetic tribe including Boudicca’s designing duo, the team of Three As Four, jewellery designer/ Spike Lee actor Waris or Japanese freelance journalist Take Hirakawa (who, with his rock star style, may be one of the chicest men in the Paris fashion scene)… From post to post, these images form a family album of sorts, both tender and cosmopolitan. The site’s archive dispel some of the mystery surrounding the “dame en noir”: film studies, a first marriage and premature .widowhood, a flourishing career as a designer in New York in the 80’s/90’s – stylised and glamorous creations photographed by the likes of Mario Testino. These are the few relics of a bygone past. “When I left New York, I put everything away in a storeroom in Chelsea », explains Diane Pernet. “Years went by, I stopped paying… I don’t know what became of my things.”