That’s the thing about the Hyères festival: it’s always been about doing more with less, both materially and financially. That outlier status lets it shine as the freest spirit in the fashion ecosystem, on the runway and off. From laid-back socializing on the terraces at the Villa Noailles, the scene rolls on after dark at the Hyères airport, the nearby Speedkart ground, and, this year, a disaffected thalassotherapy center-turned-Courrèges Club rave hosted by creative director and this year’s fashion jury president Nicolas Di Felice. Whatever goes on in Hyères at night tends to (mostly) stay in Hyères.
Even so, this edition brought a sense that the wild child is growing up and ready to move on. What began 40 years ago as a very fringe, occasionally unhinged, wholly unfiltered fashion-palooza is now—not unlike many Parisian houses, and the industry at large—facing a time of transition.
Having rehabilitated the century-old Villa Noailles and revealed as-yet unknowns (Viktor & Rolf, Raf Simons, Glenn Martins, Julien Dossena, and Anthony Vaccarello among them) the Festival has reshaped its hometown and the surrounding region. It now finds itself in a position to anchor its influence within the framework of France 2030, a five-year, 54 billion-euro project for innovation and reindustrialization. If things run to plan, by this time next year the Villa Noailles could be the epicenter of a nascent Centre National de la Mode, a national fashion hub underpinned by more formal structure and sponsorship.
That development is the culmination of decades of tireless fundraising, and investment on local, regional, and national levels, said Jean-Pierre Blanc, the founder, creative director, and impresario of the Hyères fashion festival and its complementary event, Design Parade.
“Paris has its Centre de Danse, Arles has Photography, and Cannes has the film festival, so a fashion center seemed legitimate for our 40th,” he said, adding that such an entity would encompass information, education, and culture, focusing on fashion, specialized crafts, and photography, and hard-to-access corners of the ecosystem, like makeup artistry and set design.
“Part of the future of Hyères and the region is in play here,” said Jean-Pierre Giran, the mayor of Hyères and president of the greater region that includes the port city of Toulon. Though he declined to share opinions about Friday’s runway show, he offered, “It’s about spreading a state of mind. We’re ready to take initiatives for what should be done tomorrow, change how we [the city] are seen, and create a broader social dimension.”