The Up-and-Comers Square Off in France
By Karl Treacy
fashionwindows.com
May 2, 2003/FWD/ --- A warm Mediterranean sun, an abundance of palm trees, tiny winding medieval streets and stunning vistas add a special dimension to the annual Hyeres festival in the south of France. Maybe Paris Fashion Week might consider relocating to this paradise spot.
The festival, currently in its 18th year, has helped launch such designers as Viktor & Rolf, Alexandre Mathieu and Gaspard Yurkievich onto the world fashion stage. And, no matter what one might expect from a no-holes-barred competition, the ten young designers up for consideration produced work that was a mix of the highly wearable and the suitably thought-provoking.
In a fashion world besieged with daily tales of financial woe and falling sales, it was Sandrina Fasoli, whose simple and fresh clothes walked away with the coveted overall womenswear prize. Fittingly, the graduate of La Cambre fashion school in Brussels also shared the commercial prize with her sharp, modern cutting with a girlish lightness.
Taking a principal palette of lemon yellow, white, pale blue-gray, and spicing it up with splashes of large blue polka dots, Fasoli's only concession to difficult artiness came in the barely discernable habit of certain skirts and coats that passed between the legs like a diaper. Fancy effects aside, these clothes could have walked out onto the street as is, especially a curvy-constructed raincoat in a blown-up black and white check pattern.
The best received show, hence its reception of the public prize, was the dreamlike collection from France's Dominique Bastard and Antonin Ghirardi. In feather-light ruffled and pleated suede punched out like lace, the resulting collection was mind-bogglingly complex, but perfectly realized and terribly romantic.
The prize sponsored by Henri Bendel went to Holland's Hamid Ed-Dakhissi for his womenswear collection presented to the wafting notes from a front-row accordion player. Taking large ballooning silhouettes reminiscent of the late 1950s, Ed-Dakhissi created a quilted duvet coat with silk brocade, a lace effect shawl, and a lampshade coat under which came a dress of printed roses cut from fabric. And beneath a raglan coat, a stunning bias-cut dress made of silk scarves emerged, and a backless wedding dress, whose sweeping skirt was made from knotted scraps of old shirts, was edgy and delightful at the same time.
The top menswear prize went to Austria's Ute Ploier, whose tunics and collarless jackets in rounded, organic shapes and shades topped off narrow pants. She also cut slick, sleeveless overalls, and paired sweatshirt-effect tunics over tight trousers that ruched over boots for a more urban look.
Three designers, including Ploier, showed menswear this year. Henrik Vibskov (Denmark) showed bright and colorful easy suits printed with micro repeat patterns or patterns printed on garments wrapped around the neck as scarves. Black wool and khaki raincoats were also strong in his collection.
France's Jeremy Dhennin tapped into a sport vibe and produced novel, and strangely desirable, outfits that fused the football field with the shopping mall. Jeans stopped abruptly just under the buttocks where they transformed into gathered track pants, running vests were in shirting fabrics, and ribbed white sock material with red and blue stripe detailing became armlets and the waistband on a mesh jacket.
Laurent Edmond (France), who shared the commercial prize with Sandrina Fasoli -- 15,000 Euro each and the chance to have three of their outfits produced commercially and sold by the 1-2-3 retail chain -- used large colorful plastic doves and geometric shapes to accessorize his collection of harlequin patchwork effects, softly quilted bolero harnesses and kimono dresses in shades of ice blue, pink and pistachio.
After a shaky start of printed denim and chiffon tunics, the collection by Gregory Georgescu (Belgium) took flight with sculptural pleating, sparkling crystal decorative plates and a black top whose slashes tied into neat little bows. Another Belgian, Chrystel Fischer, cut, seamed, ruched and pleated to her hearts content, whipping up some rather beautiful outfits in a patchwork of shades, fabrics and textures.
With an intro of "ordinary" men carrying workman's tools (and even a chair) in their hands, Sonja Bossert and Brigitte Schorn (Germany) showed a line-up of conceptual clothing with patterns that were derived from the shape and details of those very same tools. A long tube dress intricately composed of strips of dark green leather that spilled loosely from the top mimicked the shavings made by a wood plane.
With some whispers of attendance at this year's event being lower than in previous years, Hyeres still provides an unprecedented amount of exposure and contact to media and important movers and shakers in the fashion world that young, talented designers might otherwise never achieve.
Christophe Beaufays, Laureat from 1999, described participating in the Hyeres festival as "one of the best things to have on your business card". Currently designing a well-received and progressive leather line called Auguste, Beaufays noted that, "as it was only the first season and few people had really heard of Auguste, all information communicated mentioned that I had won the Grand Prix at Hyeres. It got people's attention."
I've almost forgoten, it's 
slightly dissapointing.
I just realised I cannot go to Hyeres 
i want to see photos 
I'm so busy with redecorating the apartment (and so tired-no time for the web) 
