Founder of the Hyères Festival, Jean-Pierre Blanc looks back at key moments from Europe’s largest fashion festival The
Jean-Pierre Blanc pulled off the insane feat of creating the biggest fashion festival in Europe, at the Villa Noailles in Hyères. Yet nothing predestined this self-taught visionary to come up with such a successful launch pad for young designers. Blanc was just 20 years old when, in 1986, he came up with the idea to stage the first edition of the competition – then called the “Salon des stylists” – in his hometown of Hyères. Some 40 years on, the Festival has grown to become an international success, and some of today’s leading designers – from Anthony Vaccarello (Saint Laurent) to, Julien Dossena (Rabanne), Felipe Oliveira Baptista (ex-Kenzo), Viktor & Rolf and others – have been awarded the top prize by the Festival’s famously demanding juries. Here, Blanc looks back at some of his liveliest memories of an extraordinary Festival famed for its fierce commitment to no-holds-barred creativity.
Why was launching the Festival in 1986 such a daring thing to do?
It took a certain amount of guts to organize this kind of event outside of Paris. Paris was just the absolute reference, the guidinglight of fashion. To imagine for even one moment that the fashion world would descend upon Hyères to attend a festival launched by some total nobody was just insane! The first runway show was held in a defunct church, starting in the morning and ending… well, into the night. It just lasted all day! We’ve always been kind of radical like that.
I also thought it was really a shame that the luxury and fashion industries were somehow reserved for an elite few, and I definitely wanted to shake things up. It struck me that the doors to this world were only open to the “sons of” or “nieces of”, and I thought it was time to put talent back in the forefront. I was really fired up against the system.
In 1991, John Galliano agreed to stage a special fashion show at Hyères. A year later, Helmut Lang, Jean Colonna, Martine Sitbon, Marc Ascoli, Jean Touitou and Martin Margiela all sat on the same jury. These two moments in fashion history were, to say the least, pretty extreme… What do you recall most about them?
Today, when I think about Galliano coming in 1991, I just realize how unlikely it was! He was the absolute darling of Paris, and he agreed to come to Hyères and he put on a really memorable fashion show . And the next year, it was as if a flying saucer had landed, all at once we had the most talented underground fashion designers on the same jury. And Martin Margiela – who at the time absolutely refused to show his face – just let himself be photographed all weekend, which was crazy! The third seismic shift was in 1993, when Viktor & Rolf, two kids plucked from the shortlist, put on a breathtaking show with blindfolded models, and just swept all the awards.
You’ve convinced some of the biggest names in fashion to chair the Hyères jury, including Paco Rabanne, Yohji Yamamoto, Karl Lagerfeld, Azzedine Alaïa, Christian Lacroix and Dries van Noten. I imagine it takes a fair bit of courage and audacity to approach that level of designer, and convince them to take part?
Truly creative designers know that if they decide to collaborate with me, they’ll be given carte blanche. There won’t be any interference in their artistic choices. This freedom is compelling because it’s so radical.. And I believe designers know they’re in for some fairly intense times. Twenty years ago, Michèle Montagne, a longtime festival attendee, said: “The corridors of the Hôtel Provençal are like an annex of The Palace nightclub.” That’s a perfect way to sum up how intense the Festival is.
What’s been the most drastic change you’ve seen in fashion over the past 30 years?
Fashion has turned into a global business, whereas when we launched the Festival, it was more of a “niche” business. Fashion shows have become standardized across the world, thanks to the big luxury groups. In the late 1980s, it was still mostly independent fashion houses. But you know what – and maybe this is my super-optimistic side talking – fashion is still just as thrilling. There’s a whole alternative scene that has sprung up and it’s really a force right now. It’s a group outside of the big groups. And then of course we’re really saved by all the artisanal crafts. Their know-how is respected by absolutely everyone, and that puts fashion in a whole new light.
Has the profile of the Festival candidates evolved over the years, in your opinion?
The applications we get are still just as exciting to open, and that’s reassuring. Schools are preparing young people in a much more professional way than when we first started, there’s no doubt about that. But young designers still have that same force, same fire, same enthusiasm. You’d think with all these billions flying around, or the tough job market, there’d be some disillusionment with the industry. But the fashion world continues to hold this giant appeal. Wild experimentation is still the name of the game, whether in terms of the materials they use or the ideas they want to convey.
Do you think young designers are smoother around the edges than they used to?
Not at all. I think it suits people to say that the big groups killed creativity, but we’ve seen extraordinary talents emerge in the past few years with amazing power and courage: De Pino, Weinsanto, Christoph Rumpf, Botter and Igor Dieryck, for example. Meeting 20-year-olds who really have their head on their shoulders, who are creative in terms of both design and the business , that’s what always fascinates me.
In 1996, the Festival moved to the Villa Noailles, built by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens between 1924 and 1932. Today, you are the director of the Villa, which has now become a center for art, design and architecture, and you are carrying on the tradition of openness and patronage begun by Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles. What was so iconoclastic about this couple of art patrons, and in what ways do they continue to inspire you?
In terms of being radical, they really wrote the book. They were wealthy aristocrats who did the exact opposite of what people in their circles were supposed to do. They commissioned artists nobody knew about at the time, like Giacometti and Dalí. Patrick Mimouni, who made a film about them, describes them as “two characters from a novel that was never written”. To me, they were like sentinels, like beacons in the night.
Tell us what was the craziest experience ever at the Festival.
There were so so many. But the first time I met Karl Lagerfeld was truly unforgettable. He really changed my life. In 1995, he contacted me – me, who came from absolutely nowhere – to organize a photo shoot in the Villa Noailles. He stayed for a week with his whole team (Julien d’Ys, Nadja Auermann, Stéphane Marais), just telling the world’s most beautiful stories, in a ruined villa. Every time I met him, it was like a dream. It was a huge honor when he agreed to be the artistic director of the 30th edition of the Festival, in 2015.
I also remember 1997, when Pierre Hardy was the artistic director. We decided to change venues every evening, thinking how much fun that would be! We organized one show in the old town of Hyères, another in the closed-down basement of a casino, and a third in a school courtyard. Looking back on it now, I can’t believe how crazy it was, especially since we didn’t have a dime at the time. Gaspard Yurkievich won that year, and helium-filled balloons lit up his runway.
Read also: Meet the 10 finalists of the 2024 Hyères Festival 2024