Text and photos by Matthew Zorpas. Photos edited by Filep Motwary.
"When someone asks me what is Hyères Festival all about; why it gets more buzz than any other fashion week; what’s so special about it? Well, to be honest with a history of 25 years it’s hard to know where to begin. However, I think I figured out the answer with my second visit. Paris is known for haute couture, Milan for classic fashion, New York and London for ready-to-wear and contemporary fashion. Hyères Festival, however, is the only fashion festival that celebrates everything together; a combination of the villa’s Noailles history and Hyères beautiful landscape, it’s unique selection of photographers and designers and it’s diverse audience, makes it a special and a phenomenal festival.
Hyères, often called Hyères -les- Palmiers (Hyères-the-Palm-trees) is a fabulous city of 50,000 in the South of France. Not many places in the world, offer the diversity and range of natural beauty and architectural scenery that are all within a journey in that city. Because of its history, Hyères has both a very interesting old city center and a fascinating district with the villas and hotels that were built between 1860 and 1930. It’s small enough, that you’ll discover most of it in just an hour or two but the maze of interesting old narrow streets on the hillside, lovely houses, smooth wine and tasty food can provide hours of wander and exploring.
Located in the hills above Hyères, the villa Noailles is an early modernist house, where in 1926 Charles Noailles commissioned Robert Mallet-Stevens to design it as the Noailles family residence. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Noailles villa was an important patron of modern art and design. Artists such as Man Ray, Miro, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunel, and Jean Cocteau among others worked in and around the villa. The Ministry of Culture decided in the late 70’s to list the villa as a national monument after years of standing unoccupied and dilapidating between 1947 and 1970. Since then the villa Noailles holds the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie and a series of design, photography and architecture exhibitions.
The Festival International de Mode et de Photographie is directed by Jean-Pierre Blanc and every spring, between April and May, it passionately presents a selection of ten new young international designers and photographers, enabling new talents to exhibit alongside established names of the industry at villa Noailles in Hyères.
Lasting just three days, young fashion designers from all over the world present to the public their first collection in a series of fashion shows, under the patronage of an international jury. Counting 25 years Hyères festival has showcased, more than 300 first-time collections by new fashion designers and exhibited the works of over 80 young and innovative photographers. To cite only a prominent few the competition have since become essential names in the world of fashion such as Viktor & Rolf, Gaspard Yurkievich, Anke Loh, Alexandre Matthieu, Xuly Bët, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Thierry Rondenet & Hervé Yvrenogeau (Own), Xavier Delcour, Cyd Jouny, Marc Le Bihan, Karine Arabian, Sébastien Meunier, Crstof Beaufays, Christian Wijnants, Rivière de Sade, Sandrina Fasoli, Laurent Edmond, Ute Ploier, Hamid Ed-Dakhissi, Henrik Vibskov, Richard René… and has thus spotlighted the works of photographers such as Camille Vivier, Olivier Amsellem, Anushka Blommers and Niels Schumm, Solve Sundsbo, Martine Stig, Morgane LeGall, Daniel Stier, Charles Fréger, Joël Tettamanti, Mathieu Bernard-Reymond, Loan Nguyen, Timur Çelikdag, Franco Musso and Luciana Val, Thomas Mailaender...
In an environment where the creative development of new fashion brands is becoming increasing difficult, the Festival aims to offer young talents a genuine professional opportunity by providing them with profitable contacts and intensive media exposure by pushing them forward — artistically, editorially, commercially. Moreover, L'Oréal has been one of the festival's major sponsors for a number of years and provides additional financial support to the winner through a grant of 15,000 euros and the ten competing fashion designers receive a choice of CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements to use in their future collection. On the other hand, The New York School Of Visual Arts offers to the photographer awarded by the Jury Prize a Photo Global one-year scholarship. Le Book, the international guide-book of creative resources offers exposure in its Paris, London and New York editions, to the selected photographers of the Hyères photography competition.
In every edition, the Festival invites an established designer to be a part of the jury count. John Galliano, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Jean Colonna, Martin Margiela, Martine Sitbon, Ann Demeulemeester, APC, Mario-Chanet, Helmut Lang, Philip Treacy, Hussein Chalayan, Gaspard Yurkievich, Bernhard Willhelm, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier, Pierre Hardy, Anna Sui, Christian Lacroix, Kris Van Assche and many others have been just some of the members of the jury count in the past years. Whether former members of the photography jury included Régis Durand (Jeu de Paume), Christian Caujolle (Agence Vu), Emmanuel Perrotin (Emmanuel Perrotin gallery), Paul Wombell (The Photographers’ Gallery), Luca Stoppini (Vogue Italia), Marie-Claude Beaud (Mudam, Luxembourg), Alex Wiederin (Another Magazine), Terry Jones (i-D Magazine), Dennis Freedman (W Magazine) and more.
With a history of 25 years, the festival gives artists recognition and respect in the world of the visual and design art and a chance to be discovered by a wider public and all kinds of backgrounds. Perhaps most will visit Hyères Festival for leisure. Perhaps some will be attracted by the exhibitions subject, yet others for the names involved. For whatever reason you might decide to visit Hyères Festival you will find something to be attached to. Hyères Festival is a temple of creativity and an institution with instant visibility, which only helps to enrich our environment with internationally art, fashion and creative people.
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