With three different contests, several prizes, and a jury of professionals, the festival is known for boosting the careers of young, emerging designers and photographers. This year, Hyères Festival has thirty contestants (ten fashion designers, ten photographers, and then accessory designers), almost twenty exhibitions and a lot of talent. But who are the ones breaking the mould? We introduce you to some of them. 

Christoph Rumpf

The Austrian-born designer says his collection shown at Hyères is built around the story of a little boy who grew up away from human presence. Later, he discovered that he was a lost prince who has a hard time adjusting to his status in society. This can be seen in the way Rumpf questions the contrast between clothing in its basic element of protection and its other vital role, meaning mainly, self-representation.

Currently at Vienna’s University of Applied Arts, Rumpf puts emphasis on his clothes embodying a kind of character of otherness that he wants people to climb into as they adorn themselves with his classic, yet bold and original pieces. He constructs his designs using elements of lost-and-found and recycles the kind of fabrics that can be found at flea markets and junk sales: think old carpets and curtains. He does the same with his jewellery, for which he used old belly dance pieces. Through this, he hopes to find and encourage a more sustainable kind of fashion to the table. This old versus new approach he brings to the construction of his pieces is just visceral enough to be charming and one of a kind, whilst never straying from bold cuts and strong masculine silhouettes brushed with the mark of soft opulence.

Milla Lintila

Lintila’s background of working with designers such as Alexander McQueen, Paco Rabanne and Balenciaga shines through in her attention to detail, concept and the deliberate execution of her pieces. Originally from Helsinki, she studied textile design in Kyoto. Lintila formed this collection with a focus on three main elements of draping, knit and jersey. The exploration of gender ideals and questionably ‘new’ femininity, or at least the figure of the woman through an alternative gaze, are tied together in this collection of unisex knits and are inspired by French artist Valentine de Saint-Point and her Manifesto of the Futurist Woman and Manifesto of Lust.

The artist, who was inspired by both Rodin and Lamartine, questioned and restructured the idea of what ‘woman’ is in a manifesto that considered ideas of female sexuality and romance. She brought the concept of ‘women’s action’ to the futurist movement. The way she revolutionised choreography is echoed in Lintila’s structures applied to the current collection: hips jag from asymmetrical cuts and give the feeling of ever-present movement – both through dance and toward a future vision.

Tetsuya Doi, Yota Anazawa & Manami Toda

These three creatives hailing from Tokyo have garnered attention and praise for their latest collection, which draws on classic, seemingly simple tailoring like that we saw in the ‘80s. It echoes certain ‘American casual’ and then subverts it in unexpected directions – seams burst, silhouettes balloon dramatically on minimal styling and nonchalant settings. Collaborating under the label Re:quaL, the trio combines a collection of skills to produce a unique end product. This result is a collection that begs us to delve into themes of personal identity or personality as a singular entity. In the era of deconstruction, it is refreshing to see a collection that seems to do so for a deliberate and considered reason.