Hermès Sets New Prize At Hyères Fashion Festival

Jean-Pierre Blanc, founder of Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography, gathered friends and collaborators on Wednesday night to officially unveil the jury of the 35th edition of the festival, to be held from April 23 to 27, as well as announce the 10 finalists in each category. But before the grand announcement, Blanc had a couple of important pieces of news to share.

“I am proud to say the French government has given its high patronage to the 35th edition of the Hyères festival, which particularly moves me as it’s the first time in the history of the festival that this request has been accepted,” said the founder, who in 2018 had called for more funding to help the festival survive.

Hosting a flower-filled cocktail party at the Beaux Arts, Blanc also unveiled a new prize for the 2020 edition of Hyères: Hermès has created a new accessories prize delivering an endowment of 20,000 euros, or $22,000, for the best collaboration between a Hyères finalist and the Hermès ateliers for a leather-based piece of jewelry.

“It’s kind of amazing to think that in a couple of weeks, these 10 young fashion school graduates will be able to go work in the Hermès ateliers,” Blanc said. He then went on to announce the three jury presidents: Jonathan Anderson will head the fashion jury; Paolo Roversi will lead the photography jury, and Hubert Barrère, artistic director of Chanel Métiers d’Art house Maison Lesage, will take the lead for the accessories prize.

The 10 finalists of the fashion prize, chosen by Anderson’s jury that day, are Aline Boubert, Xavier Brisoux, Marvin M’Toumo, Céline Shen and Emma Bruschi from France; Katarzyna Cichy from Poland; Timour Desdemoustier and Tom Van Der Borght from Belgium; Andrea Grossi from Italy, and Maximilian Rittler from Austria.

The winner of the fashion prize, named Grand Prix Première Vision, will take home a 40,000 euros endowment, one half sponsored by Première Vision and the other from Chanel. There are two other fashion prizes to be won: the Chloé prize and the 19M Chanel Métiers d’Art prize, launched in 2019, both worth 20,000 euros each. Both the photography and the accessories prizes are worth 20,000 euros, provided by Chanel.

Founded and headed by Blanc, the festival has been a launchpad for many fashion designers, including Paco Rabanne’s Julien Dossena, Viktor & Rolf, Anthony Vaccarello and most recently Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, who were named creative directors of Nina Ricci mere months after winning Hyères and reaching the final stage of the LVMH Prize.