In the south of France this weekend, the granddaddy of fashion prizes—The Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography, and Accessories—marked its 40th anniversary by showcasing talents from around the world. On the fashion front, family ties informed strong lineups that incorporated military themes, gender fluidity, and intensive handcraftsmanship — and it’s fair to say that, to a person, the 10 finalists presented pieces that would be perfectly at home on the shop floor right this very minute.
On Saturday afternoon, Swiss-Chilean designer Lucas Emilio Brunner scooped the Fashion Jury’s Grand Prize for a collection called “A Bout de Souffle” (Breathless), based on the idea of balloons. The designer, who until last July had worked in the Martin Margiela Atelier studio, presented a red, white, and blue showpiece he wove from magician’s balloons in his hotel room on the eve of his presentation, as well as good-humored novelty items like a number 3-shaped gold clutch modeled after a foil party balloon—a collaboration with the Chanel-owned Desrues—and even socks with little balloon knots tied at the ankles.
The other winners included French designer Adrien Michel, who received the 19M Métiers d’Art Prize for a collection that hybridized technical sports gear into women’s wear, and Polish-Palestinian designer Layla Al Tawaya, who took home the Ateliers des Matières prize for a lineup that explored tropes of hyper-masculinity and femininity in laser-cut leather, tulle, lace, and a silver-edged ribbon tweed.
The inaugural Supima Prize, which includes a trip to New York and robust support with fabric sourcing, was awarded to Swiss designer Noah Almonte, who holds a day job at Loewe, for a cartoony-chic collection inspired by the Apple Vision Pro and life in the digital realm. And the Public Prize went to the Paris-based Lebanese designer Youssef Zogheib for men’s wear with couture leanings inspired by the work of Royal Air Force photographer John Topham during WWII. (See the full list of winners for fashion, accessories and photography here: https://villanoailles.com/en).
But Hyères is hardly immune to larger trends: the bigger story unfolding at the Villa Noailles is a Great Reset of its own. In June, it was announced that the festival’s colorful founder, Jean-Pierre Blanc, would step down amid a saga that unspooled with as many twists and turns as the switchback road leading up to the villa. If that left organizers scrambling, the festival opened as planned, albeit in a scaled-back version with a subdued, appropriately reflective vibe for straitened times. Elegant tributes to Blanc’s vision and the stature the city of Hyères gained under his watch were offered by Pascale Mussard, president of the Villa Noailles association; Jean-Pierre Giran, the mayor of Hyères; and Pascal Morand, the executive president of the FHCM.
Even so, the message was clear: the show must go on. “In a historic year of creative change, there’s a new generation coming in and it’s a new way of communicating, but the message is one of continuity,” Mussard told Vogue. “Bringing this [fashion] jury together in one place would be impossible in Paris. It’s never been easier to reach out via DM, but there’s nothing better than meeting in person, and that’s what Jean-Pierre created in Hyères. It’s extraordinary to watch what happens at the Villa Noailles.”
Stepping into Blanc’s shoes is Hugo Lucchino, the freshly appointed managing director of the Villa Noailles and an alum of the Palais Galliera. Though he’s still living out of a suitcase, having moved from Paris just days ago, Lucchino hit the ground running with big plans for the next chapter.
At a roundtable before the prize ceremony, Lucchino said programming would focus on developing a solid economic model and expand to include residencies, progress on a future creative hub in Toulon, more transparency and, at the top of the list, returning the Villa to the black.
“Our 40th is a perfect moment to look at how far we’ve come and refocus as an art center with an international dimension,” he said. “What strikes me about the festival is its ability to adapt while mirroring creative effervescence.” Letting the festival evolve could mean adding new disciplines in fashion or culture, he added. “We’ll be reflecting the hospitality and pluridisciplary spirit of Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles. In returning to our roots, we’ll be able to shine as bright as ever.”
The new chapter could be game-changing. For years, the allure of Hyères was as much about a four-day party on the Riviera that started at the Villa Noailles, then rolled downhill and on toward dawn at private villas and playgrounds like a now-defunct public bath house or a long-disused airport, as it was about the fashion.
More recently, thanks notably to sponsors like Chanel, 19M, Hermès, and Première Vision, the program had gained structure. But this year’s shift was significant, with a program tightened to three days, a single fashion show, a streamlined partnership roster, and fewer satellite events up and down the coastline.
In a first, the fashion jury featured an all-designer lineup counting Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Julien Dossena—who in 2006, while still a student, won the Special Jury and 1-2-3 prizes and returned as fashion jury president a decade later—Alexandre Mattiussi, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (who scooped three prizes here in 1993), Christelle Kocher, Pelagia Kolotouros, and Louis Gabriel Nouchi (winner of the Galeries Lafayette prize in 2014).
“We’re all co-presidents,” offered de Castelbajac, who designed the motif for this year’s edition, a multicolored sun that was reprised on a flag, totes, and Supima tees. “I’m a child of transmission,” he added, citing friends and mentors like Warhol, Basquiat, and Mapplethorpe. The designer, who is readying a major retrospective at the Frac museum of contemporary art in Toulouse in December, added, “it’s important to be here for the new generation, who is forced to make do with history, but fashion is always a mashup between heritage and modernity, lived experience and divergence.”
For Mattiussi, this was a maiden journey to the Villa Noailles. “I’d always heard a lot about it from friends, and after four days they’d come back wrecked,” he said. “This year, I felt like I have the experience, and maybe the maturity, to help and share with the next generation.”
Likening fashion’s current popularity to PSG soccer or Hollywood, Dossena added, “I’m not sure that, today, I would have had the courage to try to break into fashion. As a student, Hyères was foundational for me, so it was important to me to give back what I received and help open up new possibilities for them.” Horsting and Snoeren, who recalled cutting patterns as big as the floor of their first apartment in Paris, reflected on how a desire to be in fashion crystallized when they came to Hyères. “It was a one-off experiment because we wanted to work together; we had no intention of launching a label then—we didn’t even have a name and we felt very small—but we wanted to be designers,” Horsting recalled. “We wanted to turn our feelings into clothes, and Hyères gave us the confidence to start.” Added Snoeren: “Hyères brought us closer to the dream.”
The fashion, accessories and photography exhibitions from the 2025 Hyères International Festival will remain open at the Villa Noailles through Jan 11, 2026.