Visions Episode 18: Hyères, Where Fashion’s Future Takes Shape

“What has made the Festival so distinctive since its inception is, first and foremost, the eclecticism of the aesthetics represented,” explains Lucchino of the event, held at the Villa Noailles in mid-October. “Of course, each edition has its own distinct character, shaped by the personality of the jury presidents. But what immediately stands out is the remarkable creative freedom afforded to the finalists, and the respect for a diversity of forms, techniques and savoir-faire. The designers are not asked to consider pricing or other economic criteria. The focus here is firmly on creativity. Given the level of work coming out of schools today, the pieces are also impeccably constructed, conceived and executed,” he adds. Perhaps this is the first insight into the future offered by this laboratory: creativity is far from waning. Across Europe and beyond, it is finding expression in diverse and daring forms.

While designers’ sensitivity to the geopolitical climate may shift from one year to the next depending on how events are portrayed in the media, more fundamental still is the role of family, personal experience and individual cultural identity in the creative process.

“We are seeing a return to their roots, made all the richer by the fact that these designers come from different countries,” says Lucchino. “A Mexican designer and an Iranian designer draw on their cultural heritage in very different ways, bringing greater individuality to the way they take inspiration from their personal histories. The approach is always thoroughly researched and referenced, and never falls into the trap of cultural appropriation,” he adds.

"Themes such as mental health and psychological or physical trauma have been appearing in collections for several years, and we will see this again at the next edition in the work of a Belgian finalist. The same approach extends to accessories: one French finalist, for example, collects small found objects, then casts them and transforms them into adornments that tell a story."

This highly personal approach to working with lived experience and cultural and identity-based source material goes hand in hand, Lucchino notes, with “a particular attention to traditional savoir-faire and techniques, reinterpreted for personal purposes. They break down the hierarchies between vernacular crafts, haute couture techniques and upcycled materials. Likewise, they readily bring references from streetwear and pop culture into their collections alongside the codes of luxury ready-to-wear and couture.”

This distinctive quality is likely to be enriched with each new generation of designers. “This year, an Iranian finalist is working with traditional embroidery in an extremely contemporary way, to the point where you can see a sense of kinship with certain couture houses. A Mexican finalist, meanwhile, explores embellishment through accumulation, while an Austrian finalist reinterprets workwear, taking the design to maximalist extremes with exuberant XXL volumes.”

Another lesson, and one that will undoubtedly have an impact on the industry as a whole, lies in the highly international—one might even say globalized—education of this new generation. “When you look at their backgrounds, you realize that they have often studied in Europe: the two Chinese finalists attended Parsons, the Iranian finalist studied at Polimoda in Florence, while the Mexican finalist and a Spanish candidate studied at Central Saint Martins,” he says. This circulation of creative talent is likely to have a broader and more lasting impact on the industry. “Even when they have only just completed their studies, they already have remarkably international profiles. It is not unusual for them to have attended several schools, sometimes in different countries,” adds Lucchino. “One Belgian finalist, for example, studied at La Cambre in Belgium and then at HEAD in Switzerland, developing technical skills at one and an understanding of image at the other.”

The way this new generation engages with technology also offers insights into the future of the industry. For these designers, technology opens up a realm of possibilities, but they do not engage with it in a literal way. “They arrive at our partner Les Teintures de France with their mood boards. The company combines expertise in ancestral savoir-faire with new technologies, and the designers develop their silhouettes using the techniques that will produce the effects they are looking for. They understand the importance of textile finishing and seek out the best solutions, whether that means 3D printing, laser cutting, ozone washing or ecological hand-dyeing. These technologies are used in service of the creative project, to achieve the material effects, colors and textures they are looking for.”.

The question of the relationship to the body takes on particular significance among the finalists in the Accessories competition, whose work distorts it in a variety of ways. This is the case with mouth ornaments created by a French finalist who studied at the IFM, which transform and cover the body, fusing it with the animal world. A former Duperré student, meanwhile, creates spiked carapaces and scale-like objects. Other pieces expose the body down to its very entrails, as in the glass organ-like jewelry created by another French finalist. Materials that mimic skin, such as latex, have also become increasingly prominent in recent years among young fashion and accessories designers alike.

From this perspective, Hyères acts as a sounding board for the concerns of emerging generations and their new ways of thinking about social relationships, identities and the body.