Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories

The Hyères Festival: Forty Years of Creative Revelations

Since 1986, the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories has established itself as one of the most influential events in contemporary global fashion creation. Organized by the Villa Noailles, an art center located on the heights of the old town of Hyères, it is now the only international competition simultaneously bringing together fashion, photography, and accessories in a single historic venue.

The Villa Noailles: A Cradle of the Avant-Garde

The festival takes place within the Villa Noailles, a masterpiece of modernist architecture designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens between 1923 and 1933 for patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles. This legendary place, which hosted Man Ray, Luis Buñuel, Fernand Léger, and Giacometti in the 1920s, embodies the tradition of avant-garde and support for artistic creation. Now a listed historic monument and managed by the City of Hyères, it provides a unique setting to celebrate fashion as a living art.

The Competition: An International Stage for Young Creators

The heart of the festival is its international competition open to young designers from around the world. Each year, hundreds of applications are submitted by students and recent graduates from leading fashion and photography schools. A rigorous pre-selection leads to a final selection of about ten candidates per category, who present their collections or portfolios to a jury of recognized professionals.

The competition categories are:

• Fashion: complete collections presented during fashion shows in the Villa's spaces
• Photography: portfolios exhibited in the Villa Noailles' rooms
• Accessories: original creations of jewelry, shoes, leather goods, and ornaments

The juries are composed of artistic directors from major houses, editors-in-chief of fashion magazines, and international photographers and designers. The winners receive financial awards and creative residencies with industrial partners, enabling them to develop their professional projects under the best conditions.

A Globally Recognized Launchpad

The list of past festival winners constitutes a veritable pantheon of contemporary fashion. Among the designers discovered at Hyères are Viktor & Rolf, Anthony Vaccarello (current artistic director of Saint Laurent), Christophe Lemaire, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Julien Dossena (artistic director of Paco Rabanne), and Marine Serre. In photography, the festival has also launched numerous international careers.

This exceptional ability to identify talent makes the Hyères Festival an indispensable catalyst for the fashion industry, where all players—agencies, fashion houses, magazines—come each autumn to scout the talents of tomorrow.

A Rich Program Beyond the Competition

Beyond the competition's fashion shows and exhibitions, each edition offers a program of exhibitions, conferences, screenings, and performances open to the public. Retrospectives are dedicated to established photographers or designers, round tables bring together key industry players, and site-specific installations transform the Villa's spaces into artistic experimentation grounds.

The 40th edition, held from October 16 to 19, 2025, celebrated four decades of commitment to emerging creation with a particularly rich program, bringing together former laureates and new generations of creators from around the world.

Strong Local Roots

Supported by the City of Hyères, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, the Department of Var, and numerous private partners—including Hermès, a historic partner—the festival actively contributes to the cultural and tourist influence of the Var region. It attracts thousands of visitors each year, both professionals and fashion enthusiasts, helping to make Hyères an international capital of creation.