At the invitation of her father, the head of the board of directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra, famous people in the classical music field visited her home, including composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and conductor Leopold Stokowski.
While visiting Mexico during college, at a rehearsal conducted by Carlos Chavez, she met Aaron Copland, who was playing the piano, and muralist Diego Rivera and painter Frida Kahlo, and befriended them all.
L'oeil published original work by famous artists, including some whose friendship she chronicled in her 1991 memoir, "Matisse, Picasso, Miro: As I Knew Them.".
[7] In 1975, she married New York Times art critic John Russell, who had once been a contributor to L'oeil; at the wedding, Copland and Bernstein played central roles, and architect Philip Johnson hosted the event.
At her farewell lecture, before a standing ovation, Bernier spoke about the history of fashion and concluded by thanking the museum, her audience, and her husband, "who will never admit it, but he wrote some of my best lines.