Fittingly then, the winner of the Première Vision Grand Prix, Tom Van Der Borght, provided a dose of much-needed optimism with his playful designs, constructed using upcycled rope, plastic tubing, vegetable fur, and sequins. The 42-year-old Belgian designer — who graduated from the Stedelijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (SASK) in 2012, a fine arts academy in Belgium — follows in the footsteps of the likes of Anthony Vaccarello and Viktor & Rolf in claiming the festival’s top fashion prize.
Describing Van Der Borght as creating "a totally new type of form” Jonathan Anderson and the jury considered self-selected looks that best illustrated contestants' sustainable practices.
The 35th edition of the festival featured a strong focus on sustainability, thanks to a digital mentorship programme launched by Mercedes-Benz and Fashion Open Studio, offering guidance on eco-friendly practices to this year’s finalists. “Mentoring the Hyères finalists was a way to share our knowledge and inspire,” Orsola de Castro, creative director of Fashion Open Studio and co-founder of Fashion Revolution, tells Vogue. “We have seen some impressive progress from those who were perhaps more tentative, and a roaring confidence in those who had really taken the sustainability issue to heart from the beginning.”
As part of the new initiative, each designer was asked to pick a look from their collection that best illustrated the sustainable practices they have learned, with French designer Emma Bruschi, who also won the Chanel Métiers d’Art Prize, acknowledged for her work incorporating traditional farming techniques. Bruschi will now showcase her work as part of a Mercedes-Benz fashion event next year, while Van Der Borght will show at Berlin Fashion Week in January 2021.
Here, we caught up with Tom Van Der Borght about the inspiration behind his collection, his design ethos, and his love of upcycling.
“It’s crazy. I’m a little bit overwhelmed — I’m feeling a hundred emotions at the same time. It’s been a fantastic experience. I’m so happy the jury picked up the message that I come with, a message of hope and for the right for existence, and that it touched them in their hearts.”
“My mother is trained in sewing and pattern cutting, so I grew up with fabric and a sewing machine. When I was five or six, I started to create my own imaginary fashion brand. I always had this love for clothes, and making things from stuff that I found around my house.”
What was the inspiration behind your collection, ‘7 Ways to be TVDB’?
“The collection is an extreme self-portrait. I started working on it when I was going through a more difficult time. In this moment, I learned that we all deal with our own problems in an individual way, but we all sometimes feel that we’re not good enough for this world. So I wanted to create a collective feeling that everything that is non-conformist or outside the box has a right to exist. It’s translated in my work as a vision for a contemporary urban tribe, where I research what luxury and haute couture can be in the future.”
“My mother always says, when people ask her how I’m doing with my fashion career, ‘Tom is not a classic fashion designer. He is more like a fashion artist who expresses his stories through clothes.’ That really is the point of view that I start from. I built this collection intuitively. Whereas in the past I would draw first, now I create on the mannequin — it almost feels like a sculpture with all the layers on top of each other.”
What’s your approach to sustainability, and what did you learn from the Mercedes-Benz x Fashion Open Studio mentorship programme?
“I’ve always had a love for things that other people don’t find useful anymore, or are easily thrown away. I wanted to use plastics that are normally disposable, and translate them into timeless luxury. I also developed knitwear using leftover wool and worked with a supplier who produces vegetable fake fur, which is an amazing material. The mentorship programme really made me look in different directions and search for materials that have sustainability qualities.
“For me, sustainability goes further than just the ecological aspect. There’s also an important social aspect; we have to redefine the way we deal with each other as human beings, and support each other in any possible way. We need to find a harmonious way to live together with each other and also with our planet.”
“I’ll go home and rest, and then I’ll keep an open mind about opportunities that come my way. I really believe the future is ready for me.”
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