The ASVOFF Festival grew out of Pernet’s blog of the same name, A Shaded View on Fashion (ASVOF), a widely respected fashion blog recognised as one of the first to gain major international attention, paving the way for the likes of Susie Bubble, among others. Over the last couple decades, ASVOF has been filled with curated content covering fashion shows, photography, interviews with creatives, and insights from various fashion professionals, all of which together offers a unique perspective on the ever-changing landscape of fashion, art, and culture.

The blog initially started as a space for Pernet to share her personal musings on fashion, combining commentary on designers, trends, and events with a strong focus on avant-garde and alternative fashion. Eventually, it drew international attention and became known for its high-fashion sensibility mixed with an art-critical approach to the industry. While ASVOF served as the springboard for the later film festival of the same name, it was really Pernet’s experience working as a costume designer in film which drove her to develop the festival:



“The real seed of my first fashion film festival can be attributed to my first job as a costume designer in the beginning of 1991 for Amos Gitai’s Golem l’Esprit de l’Exile. Gitai felt that his vision of the film was continuously in conflict with the costuming, to the point where he went through 5 different costume designers.

I was the 6th. Gitai feared that ‘fashion’ would distract from the film but, the thing is, a good costume designer builds a character with fashion—it is not about ‘here is the bag, the shoe, and so on,’ but rather about subtlety, of colour, small details, or whatever it may be, that helps to express a character in their given circumstances. 

What came out of this experience was the inspiration to prove to directors that they should not be afraid of fashion designers but understand that fashion supports film and vice-versa. It was ultimately the experience of trying to advocate for the importance of costuming in film that provided the germ for what would 14 years later become my first fashion film festival, which took place in Los Angeles at Cinespace on Hollywood Boulevard August 3, 2006. It was then called, ‘You Wear it Well’.”  —Diane Pernet

Since its genesis, the festival has become an influential international event, with screenings of fashion films from around the world. These films often include short films, experimental works, music videos, and documentaries that incorporate fashion as a central element, sometimes focusing on the creative processes of designers, the socio-cultural impacts of fashion, or the avant-garde. As a fashion film festival, ASVOFF aims to showcase the cinematic aspects of fashion. It has become one of the most important events for anyone interested in the convergence of these two dynamic industries.

The term “fashion film” might sound foreign to some and this is in part because there is no singular definition for what a fashion film is. It remains a relatively novel genre, one which prior to Pernet’s ASVOFF did not exist distinctly as a genre at all.

“When I first started my fashion film festival in August 2006, then called You Wear it Well, fashion film was not a genre. This is not to say that what we could call a “fashion film” had never existed prior—certainly in the 70’s there was Serge Luten, for example—but as a genre it was non-existent. That is, there were no generic expectations or conventions to guide the creation of a ‘fashion film’ because these two spheres were not thought of in any unifying way.

I have spent years answering the question of what a fashion film is, but it is still hard to define, simply because a fashion film can take various forms. One thing is clear, however: in a fashion film, clothing should prominently help to establish the visual aesthetics and atmosphere of a narrative. Clothing should serve as a foundation for what a story means to express. In the end, a fashion film is still about the story, but a story brough to life through clothing.” —Diane Pernet

We might simply think of a fashion film as storytelling through the medium of film in which the role of fashion is central to the narrative. “The aesthetics are paramount,” Pernet says, “but conceptually it can be about anything.” Perhaps in its most successful iteration, a fashion film merely highlights clothing to communicate a story, rather than showcasing clothing for its own sake. Be that as it may, “there is no unifying general definition of what a fashion film is because the medium is still moulding itself,” Pernet explains. Ultimately, what ASVOFF has helped to achieve is the ability to think of a film in terms of fashion, and fashion in terms of film.