Festival d’Hyères postponed until second half of October

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Mar 17, 2020

The Festival d’Hyères has been postponed until the second half of October, or the latest major fashion event called off due to coronavirus. 

“We had no other choice, because nobody was at all sure that we could travel anywhere in April,” explained Jean-Pierre Blanc, the general director of the Festival d’Hyères.
 
The festival is considered by most as leading on the international fashion scene for discovering raw, young talent fresh out of college. 

Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson, founder of the JW Anderson label and creative director of Loewe, had been chosen to chair the fashion competition’s jury at the 35th edition of the Hyères International Festival. It had initially been scheduled for April 25-29, 2020.
 
Star model Kaia Gerber was also named a jury member, together with Olivier Lalanne, editor-in-chief of Vogue Hommes International and Olivier Gabet, director of the Decorative Arts museum in Paris.
 
“For sure, the Festival will still take place in the second half of October, and we plan to have a super event when it does,” insisted Blanc, who founded the festival back in 1985.
 
The postponement follows in the wake of multiple other deferments or cancellations of major cruise shows this spring by global fashion brands – Dior, Chanel, Max Mara, Prada, Gucci and Versace - and the suspension of fashion weeks in Sydney, Beijing, Shanghai and Sao Paulo, due to fears over the spread of coronavirus.
 
The festival is held at the Villa Noailles, a famed villa and temple of Modernist architecture overlooking the city of Hyères, a charming resort on the south coast of France that first became chic in the late 19th century. The villa often houses exhibitions, showrooms, meetings and workshops that are open to the general public. As for the festival, it also awards prizes for photography as well as fashion accessories.
 
Past winners in the fashion category  have included Belgian designer Anthony Vaccarello, creative director of Saint Laurent, Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf and one of the two behind Rushemy Botter: Lisi Herrebrugh. The design duo was later appointed as creative directors of French label Nina Ricci.
 
Over the years, fashion jury chairs have included John Galliano, Dries Van Noten, Azzedine Alaia, Christian Lacroix, Riccardo Tisci, Dries Van Noten and Yohji Yamamoto.

Blanc added that organizers still planned to go ahead with the "Design Parade Hyères", which will be held from June 25 to 28 exclusively for professionals, before opening to the public until the end of August.
 
“Right now, we fully intend to maintain the dates of the "Design" festival,” Blanc stressed.