The 40th edition of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories – Hyères, took place from Thursday 16 to Saturday 18 October at the villa Noailles. The exhibitions will be open to the public until January 2026.
The festival was founded by Jean-Pierre Blanc. Since 2016, it has been presided over by Pascale Mussard, following Didier Grumbach’s chairmanship from 1997 to 2016. Since 1986, the festival has promoted and supported young international fashion designers, and since 1997, a competition has also existed for emerging photographers and since 2016, a competition also recognises young fashion accessory designers. The festival is acknowledged as the oldest fashion competition aimed at young professionals. Several prizes are awarded to the competing designers thanks to grants provided by the festival’s partners who commit, together with the festival, to provide long-term support. Practical assistance is provided right from the selection stage as well as during a period of two years in various domains: financing, production, workmanship, materials, production, legal, media, exhibitions, workshops, and residencies. Once again in 2025, among the partners of the festival are committed to supporting the next generation of designers there are: Chanel, le19M, Librairie 7L, Première Vision, LVMH, Hermès, American Vintage, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, Au-delà du Cuir, and DEFI.
Paris-based Swiss Chilean designer Lucas Emilio Brunner was named the winner of the Grand Prize of the fashion competition.
A graduate of Brussels’ La Cambre school, and most recently worked at Maison Margiela for the Artisanal collections, he presented a collection inspired by the Ivy style of the 1960s and voluminous balloons. The collection uses joyful and familiar objects such as jeans, a trench coat, an easel, and a red balloon; it attempts to introduce new ideas through the play of combinations.
The inaugural Supima Prize, which comes with a sizeable endowment of material and a trip with the other finalists to the upcoming edition of the Supima Design Lab in New York, went to fellow Swiss Noah Almonte, a graduate of IFM, Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, who impressed the jury with a collection questioning augmented reality superimposes digital content onto the real world, blurring the line between reality and virtuality.
French designer Adrien Michel scooped up the Le19M Métiers d’Arts Prize in partnership with Chanel. Graduating from ENSAV, his "Outdoors Encounters" collection was born out of a dialogue between mountain peaks and city centres, combining technical clothing, classic male garments, and the works of designer Martino Gamper.
Meanwhile, Paris-based Parsons graduate Layla Al Tawaya, who comes from Palestine and Poland, took home the L’Atelier des Matières Prize. She "Perfected Perfecto" collection challenges traditional gender norms by combining the hyper-masculine image of the 1950s biker jacket with the delicate symbolism of twentieth-century tutus.
Lebanese designer Youssef Zogheib won the public fashion prize with a collection inspired by an unusual episode from the Second World War captured by photographer John Topham, where soldiers dressed up in drag and performed in a pantomime show.
The accessories grand prize went to French designer Amaury Darras, and his pieces were inspired by a work in three-dimensional marquetry.
Alyssa Cartaut, a graduate of Duperré, Paris, and La Cambre, won the public’s heart. Her shoe collection translates a strong duality between public and private into a new form of protection inspired by cushions, whose structure and comfort are reflected in each model.
The gong award by Hermès, which challenged designers to create gloves, was taken home by Honduran designer Luisa Olivera, a Paris-based graduate of the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and the Institut Français de la Mode, for a collection of dynamic jewellery that interacts sensitively with the body and is inspired by a Mimosa pudica plant.
In photography, Noémie Ninot won the 7L Photography Grand Prize for her interviews and drawings collected show that girls quickly integrate the notions of artifice, seduction and bodily norms. These testimonies were then translated into images drawn directly from the words expressed, creating a dialogue between speech and visual representation.
Gabriel Mrabi was awarded the American Vintage prize, the public prize went to Yama Ndiaye of France and Senegal, while Julie Joubert took home a special mention.
In addition to the fashion, accessories and photography competitions, the festival is also the lynchpin of a weekend-long program that spans exhibitions to workshops and conferences such as the Rencontres Internationales de la Mode, spearheaded by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.
In addition to the fashion, accessories and photography competitions, the festival offers an array of events: fashion shows, immersive exhibitions, exclusive showrooms, workshops and conferences such as the Rencontres Internationales de la Mode, spearheaded by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.
Image: A look from Lucas Emilio Brunner. Courtesy of Lucas Emilio Brunner
