History
The Hyères Festival has been promoting young creators in fashion since 1986, in photography since 1997, and since 2017, the Festival has dedicated a competition and award to fashion accessories. Each year, the Festival is organized around three competitions, exhibitions, and round tables at Villa Noailles. The competitions gather ten fashion designers, ten photographers, and ten accessory designers, selected by professional juries. The selected candidates’ creations are presented in a collective exhibition and video for the accessory competition, fashion shows and showrooms for the fashion competition, and a collective exhibition for the photography competition, along with a catalog published for all three competitions.
The fashion competition has produced established talents such as Viktor & Rolf, Jamin Puech, Karine Arabian, Sami Tillouche, Gaspard Yurkievich, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Sébastien Meunier, Christian Wijnants, Richard René, Swash, Anthony Vaccarello, Julien Dossena, Sandra Backlund, Jean-Paul Lespagnard, Cunnington & Sanderson, Mareunrol’s, Alexandra Verschueren, Yiqing Yin, Léa Peckre, Laitinen - Raasakka & Siren, Steven Tai, Satu Maaranen, Kenta Matsushige, Annelie Schubert, Wataru Tominaga, Vanessa Schindler, Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, Christoph Rumpf, Tom Van der Borght, Ifeanyi Okwuadi, Jenny Hytönen, Igor Dieryck, and more.
The major strength of the Hyères Festival lies in the interest shown by professionals who form the jury, sponsor the event, and offer prizes. For over thirty years, some of the most influential designers have participated in the fashion jury, including Martin Margiela, Hussein Chalayan, Helmut Lang, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Martine Sitbon, John Galliano, Pierre Hardy, Jean Colonna, Azzedine Alaïa, Ann Demeulemeester, Christian Lacroix, Riccardo Tisci, Kris van Assche, Dries van Noten, Raf Simons, Yohji Yamamoto, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Carol Lim & Humberto Leon, Karl Lagerfeld, Julien Dossena, Bertrand Guyon, Haider Ackermann, Natacha Ramsay-Levi, Jonathan Anderson, Louise Trotter, Glenn Martens, and Charles de Vilmorin.