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Belgian designer Igor Dieryck scooped the main prize at the 38th edition of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories — the launchpad of many designers, including Anthony Vaccarello, Felipe Oliveira Baptista and Julien Dossena. Dieryck was also awarded the 19M Métiers d’art Prize and the Public Prize during the ceremony on 15 October.
Dieryck graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2022 and currently works in Paris as a junior menswear designer at Hermès. His co-ed collection, titled “Yessir”, was inspired by his student job in a hotel: for example, he played with the bellboy uniform and referenced feather dusters (in a piece he created with Chanel-owned speciality workshop Maison Lemarié). French designer Charles de Vilmorin, who presided over this year’s jury, called the collection “ultra desirable and creative”.
“It’s important for me that my work has several layers of understanding. Some references are very obvious and clear, but there’s a deeper meaning,” Dieryck told Vogue Business after the prize-giving ceremony.
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Some of the pieces in the collection he created during his master’s degree; he designed the others at night and during weekends while working during the day at Hermès. The collection is full of unexpected elements. “I love to play around with tailoring in a bit of a surrealistic way, but also I am passionate about sportswear. You can see this contrast in my collection. I try to make tailoring more radical and sportswear more chic,” he explained. For example, he uses embroidery on a big puffer jacket to make it “more elegant”. Among the designers he looks up to, he cites Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons, Dries Van Noten and Meryll Rogge.
The main prize (Grand Prix of the jury Première Vision) comes with a grant of €20,000. The 19M Métiers d’art Prize (which is named after the site in Aubervilliers near Paris that is home to 11 Chanel-owned speciality ateliers and nearly 600 artisans and rewards the best collaboration between the 10 finalists and the speciality ateliers) also comes with a grant of €20,000 to make a new creative project that will be unveiled at the festival next year. What’s next for Dieryck? “It’s a fantastic opportunity to have won these three prizes. I will have to think about it,” he said. In the meantime, he will go back to work on Tuesday.
The 38th edition of the festival coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Villa Noailles, where the event is held. The 1920s building in the South of France was designed by art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles as an escape from the strictures of Paris to a world of artistic freedom and creativity. For its Spring/Summer 2024 show, Chanel — which has been a headline partner of the festival since 2014 — used an immersive set consisting of videos of the sprawling view from the villa.
Swedish designer Petra Fagerstrom won the Mercedes-Benz Sustainability Prize and the L’Atelier des Matières prize at this year’s festival. Swiss designer Gabrielle Huguenot won the Grand Prix of the accessories, which comes with a collaborative project with Chanel-owned speciality workshops worth up to €20,000. French designer Victor Salinier took home the Hermès fashion accessories prize, which provides a grant of €20,000 for the creation of a fashion accessory in leather. Paris-based photographer Thaddé Comar won the 7L Photography Grand Jury Prize, renamed after the 7L bookshop that was founded in 1999 by Karl Lagerfeld in Paris.
Jean-Pierre Blanc, the festival’s founder and general director, praised “the enthusiasm of the youth” (referring to both the finalists and the president of the jury). “They are generous artists,” he added.
De Vilmorin applied to the Hyères Festival in 2019 while he was a student in his final year at La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, but he didn’t make the cut. Four years later, the 26-year-old designer is the president of a jury that includes Antoine Gagey, managing director of Jean Paul Gaultier, Hubert Barrère, artistic director of Lesage, and Daphné Bürki, presenter, actress and stylist.
De Vilmorin’s debut collection for his namesake label, presented in April 2020, was very well-received. He was subsequently appointed as creative director of Rochas in 2021 and left in April 2023. Reflecting on his stint at Rochas, he says: “It was a very enriching experience. I learned a lot.” The designer is now focused on his upcoming collaboration with Galeries Lafayette, where he is taking over the windows during the holidays.
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