A look back at the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories which has just closed its 35th edition which was like no other.
A look back at the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories which has just closed its 35th edition which was like no other.
Founded and directed since 1986 by Jean-Pierre Blanc and chaired by Pascale Mussard, the festival presents each year emerging fashion designers in the enchanting setting of the Villa Noailles, a showcase of modernist architecture, designed in the 1920s by Robert Mallet-Stevens. For ten years now, the festival’s competition has been open to photographers, and for the past four years, to fashion accessory designers. Aimed at bringing new talents to the forefront and supporting them through partners, this event has notably distinguished in the past Anthony Vaccarello, artistic director of Saint Laurent.
Initially scheduled for April and postponed for six months due to the pandemic, this 35th edition was special. Faced with a reduced audience – the gauges were limited to fifty people – and despite the health context, the emerging fashion generation nevertheless shone by its inventiveness and audacity, as if to ward off the gloomy times we are going through. For three days, master classes, design workshops, performances and fashion shows punctuated this event during which the ten finalists of the fashion prize presented their creations.
Chaired this year by Jonathan Anderson, who officiated at a distance, the jury was won over by Belgian designer Tom Van der Borght, whose wildly creative collection “7 Ways to be TVDB” with colourful, extravagant pieces made from recycled materials won him the festival’s grand prize in the fashion category as well as the public prize. In the “fashion accessories” category, the jury’s grand prize went to the French designers Ddiddue and Juana Etcheberry, who designed caps from objects “destined for landfill”, such as paraglider canvases or flower pots, which they reworked in a Japanese style. The duo – brother and sister in the city – also received the new award created by the luxury house Hermès for their graphic leather strap surrounded by levitating metal rings.
Other highlights of this edition like no other, the very poetic performance of the ballet (La)Horde to music by Rone, on the rooftops of the villa Noailles at dusk, the concert by singer Yseult, the tribute to the singer Christophe whose concert for the 30th anniversary of the festival will remain in all memories, and an exhibition of photographs by François-Marie Banier accompanied by his correspondence with Marie-Laure de Noailles as a tribute to their friendship. Fourteen exhibitions of artists such as Paolo Roversi, Alice Mann or Hubert Crabières will then take place until 29th October 2020.
35e Festival international de mode, de photographie et d’accessoires de mode
From 15th to 29th october 2020
Villa Noailles, centre d’art d’intérêt national, 83400 Hyères
villanoailles-hyeres.com