Israeli designer Dolev Elron wins fashion prize at 2024 Hyères Festival

The 39th edition of the International Fashion, Accessories and Photography Festival came to an end on Sunday October 13 in Hyères, France, with the award ceremonies at its Villa Noailles venue. The festival’s fashion competition showcased a series of accomplished, high-quality collections with two contrasting visions: “On the one hand, designers who are more inclined to work on garment creation, and on the other, those who are focusing on image,” said the fashion jury’s president Nicolas Di Felice, creative director of Courrèges. The Première Vision main prize was awarded by the jury, not surprisingly, to Israeli designer Dolev Elron, for his inventive yet extremely practical creations.
 

Tel Aviv-born Elron has designed an impeccable, extremely coherent collection. He reinterpreted denim looks in original fashion, and was appreciated for his innovative garment construction and his entirely novel yet highly wearable shapes. The collection as a whole was so unusual that it could have been spawned exclusively by AI, though Elron emphasised he only used “good old Photoshop,” drawing his inspiration from the widely used photo editing software.

The collar in a classic T-shirt was set off-centre, a bomber jacket’s zip bent in a semi-circle, the hems in a denim jacket and matching jeans curved in wave-like shapes, a shirt’s vertical stripes became distorted at the back, creating a psychedelic effect, a handbag’s strap snaked around the wearer’s chest, a tank-top’s straps turned in on themselves, a skirt and a pair of trousers blended smoothly into one another, and a leather belt widened to an elliptical shape on the side. Even a metal chain worn around the neck was misshapen.

Elron’s ‘Casual Turbulence’ collection was designed to create “an optical illusion of normality,” as he explained, saying that “I fed images into [Photoshop], which created distorting effects similar to water turbulence. This generated the fluid shapes that inspired me to design my garments, without necessarily replicating the shapes identically. It’s a blend of something high-tech, artistic and wearable.” Elron, 28, a graduate of the Shenkar college of Engineering, Design and Art in Tel Aviv, loves everything to do with model-making, drawing and the technical aspects of his craft. Two years ago, he moved to Stockholm where he joined local label Acne Studios. After an initial internship in menswear, he’s now working on the womenswear collections.

The Hyères Festival, founded and directed by Jean-Pierre Blanc and chaired by Pascale Mussard, also recognised Belgian designer Romain Bichot in the fashion competition. Bichot was awarded the 19M Métiers d’art prize and the Atelier des matières prize, introduced by Chanel, respectively, in 2019 and 2022. Bichot, 26, was born in Brussels and is a graduate of the La Cambre academy. He won over the jury with his chic-lady looks, brimming with humour and graphic patterns and pushing the envelope of sustainability. Like the airy bustier dress with train that he fashioned out of a metal-grey car cover, bought from a specialist store, which pledged to take it back and market it again after the festival.

Bichot’s detail-filled collection told the story of a stroll around town after an evening out, the clothes incorporating the sort of stuff typically found discarded on the tarmac in the urban jungle. A traffic cone was stuck on a suit’s jacket in highlighter orange. An old mattress was wrapped around the body in the guise of a mini bustier evening dress, decorated with feathers. Fabric with thick red and white or yellow and black stripes turned into pussy-bow leather gloves that could be worn around the neck like a scarf, a section of it slipping down to serve as a pair of gloves. The embroidery on a frayed, ragged-style sweater was made using reflective thread, a large satin handbag lined in silk looked like a tyre cover.

Bichot, who joined Balenciaga’s couture department in June, clearly has talent in abundance. “My primary concern is to cut my garments out of the fewest possible parts and patterns. A lot of thinking in my work is inspired by the codes of haute couture. For example, the shirts are collar-less, and their sleeves and front are made using a single piece of fabric,” he said. “What I love the most is garment construction and the technical aspects of design,” he added.

The Mercedes-Benz sustainable development prize was awarded to US designer Logan Monroe Goff, 23. He too is a master technician with a love for materials innovation. Goff likes to reinterpret tailoring codes, mixing them with the biker aesthetic of his “Texan heritage,” creating classic felt overcoats with geometric prints, silk sleeveless jackets decorated with reflective strips, and introducing canvas yokes akin to the structure of a jacket in a casual top. Goff, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design, lives in Paris and, after internships at EgonLab and Isabel Marant, is studying for a master’s degree.
 
A jury special mention went to Israeli designer Tal Maslavi, 28, who caught the eye with his vibrant creativity. His collection was entirely based on feelings of wellbeing and joy, and featured a mix of assorted items like shoes in the shape of a cake, a towel-scarf in white chocolate, fully edible, a perfumed tank top, a silicon mini dress similar to a smartphone’s protective shell, and a T-shirt glued to the skin like a decal.

French designer Gaëlle Lang Halloo, 39, meanwhile won the prize awarded by the festival’s public and the city of Hyères for her cute, highly appealing collection, a reinterpretation of sportswear inspired especially by football.

 
In the accessories competition, the jury, chaired this year by Finnish designer Achilles Ion Gabriel, awarded the main prize to Chinese designer Chiyang Duan, 28, who distinguished himself for his highly experimental research, notably in lenses, which he presented in unusual shapes utilising a unique kind of glass that can be twisted in the middle. Hunan-born Duan moved to London seven years ago, graduating in fashion at the Royal College of Art. He now works in the UK’s capital with eyewear brand A Better Feeling.

The Hermès accessories prize, introduced by the French luxury leather goods label in 2020, also went to an eyewear specialist, French designer Clara Besnard, 24, born in Le Mans. Besnard moved to Brussels to study accessories design at the La Cambre academy, and presented a fine collection made by recycling used glasses, which she transformed into statement eyewear looking like masks and pieces of jewellery. A jury special mention went to Swiss designer Camille Combremont, 27, a graduate of Geneva’s Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design (HEAD), who created an original range of items inspired by the world of camping. Mexican designer Maria Nava, 29, another Royal College of Art graduate, instead won the public’s prize thanks to her creations combining unusual materials and avant-garde technology.
 
In the Photography competition, the jury chaired by Spanish artist and photographer Coco Capitán awarded the 7L prize to Arhant Shrestha, from Nepal. Basile Pelletier from France won the American Vintage prize, British photographer Thomas Duffield was given a jury special mention, and French photographer Clément Boudet won the public’s prize.
 

 
The Hyères Festival’s 39th edition once again confirmed how emerging designers are thriving around the world, and featured a variety of perspectives and collections, with a highly consistent level of quality. However, compared to past editions, it seemed that extreme creativity and eccentricity were on the wane, in favour of less polarising collections. At a time when the fashion and luxury sectors are facing a complex juncture, the new generation of designers seems keen to enter the market with a healthy dose of pragmatism.