While ending the fashion revolution week, the 34th edition of Hyeres international fashion, photography and accessory festival took place in the famous avant garde Villa de Noailles on the french riviera. A very international dazzling jury led by Natacha Ramsay Levi for fashion (head of creation at Maison Chloé), by Charlotte Chesnais for accessories and by Craig Mc Dean for photography.
Following the presages of last year, more and more attention is brought to sustainability and involvement to responsable fashion. This year young designers take a lead on sustainability through up-cycling, zero waste, natural raw material and purpose !
UPCYCLING
Christoph Rumpf who received Premiere Vision Grand Prize clearly advocates for up-cycling! "Nowadays, everyone consumes way too much and throws away too much".
The 25th years old Austrian designer presented a structured and spectacular menswear collection made of a subtle balance of 2nd hand rerouted objects and new fabrics. He visited flea markets where he found a stately Persian carpet, Brocade and the belly dance costume fringes that he used on his masterpiece coat! He also up-cycled old foam from the car industry to create those unlikely volumes. Like a poetic and fragile story teller, he used the narration to present his project of a prince lost in the jungle who breakthroughs obstacles to come back to his royal position !
After the festival, he is going to finish his studies at Vienna and then he plans to launch his own brand with this guideline: “Don’t overproduce, pay your interns and don’t produce in countries where people get paid nothing.”
ZERO WASTE
Roisin Pierce who made a clean sweep off the Chanel metier d'art new prize, is a textile & fashion designer from Ireland.
She developed a collection inspired by the Irish magdalene laundries : Mná i bhláth (Women in Bloom). " it represents the way women were described as flower because they found anything related to sexuality shameful " Only using white as a nod to the laundries & as a symbol of purity, Roisin shown delicate women's wear & accessories collection with hats and shoes that she designed too. She explored the lacy needlework of broderie anglaise and realised her hats with Maison Michel, the famous french company which belongs to Chanel. She is also reinventing garment construction, turning around the body, using the pattern and shape making to a zero waste process.
NATURAL & ORGANIC
Among the accessories designers we noticed the very organic look of Atelier Le Gagneur's bags. Mathilde is graduated form London Saint Martin school and worked for few years at Louis Vuitton as a leather goods designer.
Her collection (O) presented at Hyeres, is entirely made in France, out of French vegetable-tanned leather only treated with natural raw materials which are environmentally friendly. The stitches are in linen yarn certified with the “Oeko Tex” label and the splendid buttons are made out ebony's wood.
The union of the high quality material and her Japanese bucket inspired design gave birth to a refined and contemporary bags collection difficult to resist to...
PURPOSE
Charlotte Chesnais, president of the accessories jury awarded Noelia Morales for her "mastectomy patches". She received Swarosvki grand prize for the creation of Anna Bonny's post cancer breast surgery set of lingerie .
She was our favorite for her strong power of resilience and sexiness that she put in her work. Stay tuned for the next post, we are telling you everything about her.
For more infos : Video of the Jury presentation day by Loic Prigent for Chloé
FIMPAH is also about conferences, exhibitions, round tables and workshops... And once again the firm stance for sustainability was obvious in the schedule.
1. LVMH organised a round table fully dedicated to this subject "The environment as a creativity factor" where Carole Collet (LVMH & Saint Martins School sustainable lab director), Alexandre Capelli (CSR dept head at LVMH), Guillaume Delacroix (DLX press agency Paris) debated the approach of sustainability for young designers and entrepreneurs.
2.For the first time, last February Kering invited the selection of 23 young designers to discuss sustainability Practical and business oriented, the presentation invited the future designers to tackle the sustainability issue while building their businesses. It also gave them the opportunity to understand luxury sustainability's stakes in a special meeting with Marie-Claire Daveu organised at the Group’s HQ in Paris.
3.French federation of Haute Couture FFFHC led the conferences set Back to craft ! A talk dedicated to the savoir-faire and expertise of craft in creative process. The journalist and mediator Nathalie Bayle, started by quoted the american sociologist Richard Sennet, the craftsman :" The human momentum is durable and absolutely fundamental in the desire of a good work execution". And later on "Craft is a sure shelter, it always makes a come back in case of crisis " said Hughes Jacquet, sociologist and historian who wrote " the hand smartness" .
4. Workshop of natural dying organised by American Vintage & Aurélia Wolf for Whole France offered the opportunity to the visitors to learn the different technics of dying and to join in !
SUSTAINABLE CROWD
We were pleased to talk to Linda Mai Phung the designer behind the Sustainable streetwear brand: Supervision . She told us " I'm attending the festival because I've heard so much about it ! It's surprising to talk with international young generation of fashion designers and to see that they are displaying collections which are condemning society today big issues like overconsumption (up-cycling or reclyced materials), disability & the involved speech of BOTTER (last year winner and now head of creation at Nina Ricci) about diversity and exclusion... It shows the concrete tangible worries of today that design tries to address to. The designers in competition use it to create something instead of refusing or hiding it ."
Hyeres fashion festival is becoming the evidence that sustainability and fashion can be a very creative meaningful mariage ! Watch this space ...
Cover picture limited edition cap by Ester Manas for Hyeres 34th edition of FIMPAH
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