On Sunday, the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Accessories, and Photography wrapped its third decade in a transitional mood as men’s wear carried the day. Israeli designer Dolev Elron took home the Grand Prix of the Jury Première Vision for a collection in denim called “Casual Turbulence.”
Elron, a junior designer in men’s wear at Acne, said he wanted to “take an archetype of hyper-masculinity that we all have in our closet, which is so familiar and comfortable that it opens up a space for disruption.” Yet that turbulence displayed maturity, for example in the controlled arc of a zipper on a khaki bomber, or more psychedelically in warped pockets, belts or buttons, and checks swirled into optical motifs with an assist not from AI but from “old-fashioned PhotoShop,” he quipped. His collaboration with the Lesage embroidery atelier—cut-offs that magnified and distorted a twill weave into jacquard—and a helixed iteration of a vintage Chanel weekender, its leather strap an interlaced scribble designed to be worn crossbody, also stood out.
Elron takes home a cash prize of 20,000 euros plus a grant from Chanel in the same amount, to be put toward a collaboration with one or several maisons d’art at le19M in northern Paris. He will also be invited to create a capsule collection for ICICLE, and receive a fabric allotment from the Alliance for European Flax, Linen Hemp, among other prizes.
The Paris-based Belgian designer Romain Bichot, who joined he atelier at Balenciaga just last month, won two prizes, the 19M Métiers d’Arts for his collaboration with Lemarié and the L’Atelier des Matières Prize for “Call Me if You Get Lost,” a unisex collection inspired by roadworks and street detritus. A traffic cone morphed into a jacket shoulder, a scaffolding tube became a clutch, and discarded mattresses was revisited in weathered satin with camellias by Lemarié, its undertones of murder mystery wrapped into a dress. An actual car cover, sourced from a parking garage in Paris, was draped and folded into a bustier gown anchored by large, initialed safety pins and paired with vinyl gloves and a necklace piled with vintage keyrings from the fleas.
The Dallas-born, Paris-based designer Logan Monroe Goff won the Mercedes-Benz Sustainability Prize with “Asphalt Cowboy,” a men’s collection melding tailoring and motorcycle racing. His winning look, a biker jacket made of canvas placements and pieces from his father’s banged-up racing suit, encapsulated a moment of transition, the designer said, symbolizing his move into adulthood as an aspiring designer. The Israeli finalist Tal Maslavi scored a special mention for “Sugar Rush,” a men’s collection based on instant gratification, improbable associations (a leather jacket whirring with massage chair mechanisms, for example), and unexpected materials, such as a temporary tattoo tee and even edibles, in this case a towel made of white chocolate.
That’s the thing about the Hyères festival: it’s always been about doing more with less, both materially and financially. That outlier status lets it shine as the freest spirit in the fashion ecosystem, on the runway and off. From laid-back socializing on the terraces at the Villa Noailles, the scene rolls on after dark at the Hyères airport, the nearby Speedkart ground, and, this year, a disaffected thalassotherapy center-turned-Courrèges Club rave hosted by creative director and this year’s fashion jury president Nicolas Di Felice. Whatever goes on in Hyères at night tends to (mostly) stay in Hyères.
Even so, this edition brought a sense that the wild child is growing up and ready to move on. What began 40 years ago as a very fringe, occasionally unhinged, wholly unfiltered fashion-palooza is now—not unlike many Parisian houses, and the industry at large—facing a time of transition.
Having rehabilitated the century-old Villa Noailles and revealed as-yet unknowns (Viktor Rolf, Raf Simons, Glenn Martins, Julien Dossena, and Anthony Vaccarello among them) the Festival has reshaped its hometown and the surrounding region. It now finds itself in a position to anchor its influence within the framework of France 2030, a five-year, 54 billion-euro project for innovation and reindustrialization. If things run to plan, by this time next year the Villa Noailles could be the epicenter of a nascent Centre National de la Mode, a national fashion hub underpinned by more formal structure and sponsorship.
That development is the culmination of decades of tireless fundraising, and investment on local, regional, and national levels, said Jean-Pierre Blanc, the founder, creative director, and impresario of the Hyères fashion festival and its complementary event, Design Parade.
“Paris has its Centre de Danse, Arles has Photography, and Cannes has the film festival, so a fashion center seemed legitimate for our 40th,” he said, adding that such an entity would encompass information, education, and culture, focusing on fashion, specialized crafts, and photography, and hard-to-access corners of the ecosystem, like makeup artistry and set design.
“Part of the future of Hyères and the region is in play here,” said Jean-Pierre Giran, the mayor of Hyères and president of the greater region that includes the port city of Toulon. Though he declined to share opinions about Friday’s runway show, he offered, “It’s about spreading a state of mind. We’re ready to take initiatives for what should be done tomorrow, change how we [the city] are seen, and create a broader social dimension.”
That includes prioritizing shops specialized in fashion and design, he said. One example opened in central Hyères just this week: Banane d’Or, named for a lesser-known moniker for the French Riviera, is run by Kai Kuhne, a former designer and Hyères habitué. Its wares include a highly curated selection of vintage furniture, objects, and fashion by Palomo Spain, Vivienne Westwood, Telfar, and the LA-based Electric Feathers.
Earlier today, a small crowd gathered for brunch at the brand new Hotel Lilou to wish Blanc a happy 60th birthday. Back up the hill, feelings about his legacy and fashion’s future remained upbeat.
“The new generation has a way of looking at life differently. They live in the visual immediacy of a color or a sensation,” offered Hubert Barrère, the artistic director of Lesage, which this year fetes its 100th anniversary. One example among many: that beer sweatshirt produced for Igor Dieryck, last year’s triple winner at Hyères. “That’s what makes working with this generation so exciting: you take this association of opposites, and you wind up creating an entirely new aesthetic, an oxymoron. For Lesage, that’s the secret of youth,” he said.
“There are no rules anymore,” offered Di Felice. “I’m interested by what fashion is becoming, as a craft, as entertainment, as lots of things. There are so many roads to get to where you want to go. But here, seeing its raw side, right out of school, is refreshing and moving. They all deserve congratulations, because they all worked hard, and in that there is resistance.”