Menswear designer Christoph Rumpf snags Hyères Grand Prix

Hyères - The 34th edition of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories took place on the grounds of the modernist villa Noailles located in the hills above the city of Hyères in the South of France. For more than 30 years the festival remains the creative hub and a place where emerging talents in fashion, photography and design are nurtured and supported.

The festival offered an exciting wide-ranging program that included the showcase of the works of the 10 competing photographers and fashion accessory designers on the ground and second floor of the Villa Noailles, the fashion show showcasing collections of the 10 competing fashion designers that took place in the Hangar de La Mouture located in the remarkable natural area just outside of Hyères as well as a number of exhibitions, creative workshops and showrooms, concerts, films and book signing events.

This year festival was presided over by Pascale Mussard, a member of Hermès family. Mussard is the founder and the former director of ‘petit h’, Hermès’s upcycled line dedicated to sustainability, and a former co-artistic director at Hermès.

Natacha Ramsay-Levi, the creative director of the French fashion house Chloé, was the president of the fashion jury. Other jury members were fashion editor Camille Bidault Waddington, The Financial Times fashion editor Jo Ellison, fashion model and designer Liya Kebede, editor-in-chief of System magazine Alexia Niedzielski, and Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, the winners of Hyères Grand Prix in 2018, to name but a few. The latter have been newly appointed as artistic directors at Nina Ricci.

And the winners of the 34th Hyères Festival are..

The Grand Prix of the jury Première Vision went to Austrian designer Christoph Rumpf for his menswear collection of deconstructed pieces. Some of the looks were created from dead stock materials or materials found on the flea markets that the designer cut into new shapes or reused in a different way. There was a suit consisting of a jacket and matching pants made of upcycled carpets and a necklace made of a chandelier. The other looks were created with the support of Sfate & Combier and Puntoseta.

The native Austrian took home the grant of 20.000 euros provided by Première Vision Paris, the equivalent in development support from Chanel’s Métiers d’art, a prize of 10.000 euros from Petit Bateau and will get to develop one or more products for Petit Bateau that will be manufactured and sold by the brand. He will also have the opportunity to visit Swarovski’s headquarters and archives in Austria and show his collection at Mercedes-Benz fashion show in Berlin. Rumpf’s collection and his upcycling approach impressed the jury members so much that they decided to offer him another grant that they called Exception Donation, which will provide him opportunities of work and exposure in China.

The presence of Natacha Ramsay-Levi, the creative director of maison Chloé, at the festival this year added a very special value to the Chloé prize that consisted of a grant of 20.000 euros. The prize was awarded to Tina Schwizgebel-Wang from Switzerland.

There was a new prize that enriched the impressive list of prizes and awards at the festival. Chanel that has been a long-time festival partner and supporter donated the new Prix des Metiérs d’art. The prize was set up to reward the best collaboration between the 10 finalists and Chanel’s ten creative ateliers. The winner of the newly created prize is the Irish designer Róisin Pierce. Pierce worked with Chanel’s Maison Michelle in order to create hats for her womenswear collection entitled “Mná I Bhlàth” (from Irish “Women in Bloom”). She will receive a donation of 20.000 euros to make a new project with Maison Michelle that will be exhibited next year. Pierce’s collection also earned love and support of the public and was honored with the public prize of the city of Hyères.

The Japanese trio Tetsuya Doi, Yota Anazawa & Manami Toda received an honorable mention from the jury for their witty womenswear collection POLOMANI (an ironic homage to Polo Ralph Lauren + Armani) that featured transformable pieces like a bag that can be transformed into a giant hat or double pants (two pants sewn together) that can be worn both ways or a dress made of several polo shirts.

The Finnish designer Milla Lintilä won the Galeries Lafayette prize and will be invited by the brand to create a capsule collection in line with her vision, which will be sold in stores and online.

The Fashion Accessories competition is a relatively new section of the festival that has been created 2 years ago. The jewellery designer Charlotte Chesnais was the head of the jury this year.

The Spanish designer Noelia Morales received the Swarovski Fashion Accessories Grand Prix for her collection of underwear “Anna Bonny, The Mastectomy Patch”. Morales received the grant of 15.000 euros, the access to Swarovski headquarters and archives, and an opportunity to develop a project with Chanel’s Métiers d’art valued at up to 20.000 euros.

The public prize for fashion accessories was awarded to Sarah Levy from Belgium for her collection “Creatures of Habit”, a collection that aimed to recreate contemporary habits in form of accessories.

The French duo Dorian Cayol & Quentin Barralon received an honorable mention from the jury for their footwear collection “Ò-pan 6”.

The festival’s fashion and accessories winners will be exhibited at the upcoming Paris Sur Mode and Première Classe Tuileries trade shows in September.

The British fashion photographer Craig McDean presided over the photography jury that included such names as Marc Ascoli, the creative director of Another magazine, the model Guinevere Van Seenus, the journalist Paris Lees, and Eva O’Leary, the winner of Hyères top photography prize in 2018.

The winner of the Grand Prix of the Photography is Alice Mann from South Africa who received 20.000 euros donated by Chanel. Mann’s photographic series “Drummies” is dedicated to all-female teams of drum majorettes in South Africa who come from some of the country’s most marginalised communities. In addition to Grand Prix, the Wallpaper* Photography Director, Holly Hay and Fashion Director, Isabelle Kountoure, chose Alice Mann to shoot a main fashion story for the magazine’s January New Generation issue.

The French photographer Hubert Crabières is the happy winner of the American Vintage Photography Prize valued at up to 15.000 euros including 5.000 euros for his personal use.

The Still Life Prize valued at 5.000 euros went to the Finnish photographer Hilla Kurki.

The French photographer’s duo Elsa & Johanna received the public prize of the city Hyères.

This article was written by Veronika Dorosheva

Images Christophe Rumpf by Catwalk Pictures (Etienne Tordoir)