Hyères 2014 honors Kenta Matsushige

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Apr 28, 2014

The 29th Hyères International Festival of Fashion & Photography honored many up-and-coming talents - more, in fact, than usual.

The designer Kenta Matsushige took the Première Vision Grand Jury Prize Sunday night at the end of the closing ceremony presided over by its founder Jean-Pierre Blanc. The Japanese 26 year-old took the 15,000-euro Grand Prize and will present a new collection at the next Hyères Fashion Festival.

"My collection aims to be urban and modern whilst respecting hinabi, pastoral beauty, which is in opposition to miyabi, urban beauty,” said the Grand Prize winner, who was warmly applauded by Chloé Sevigny, one of the jury members recruited by the American duo Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, creative directors and co-founders of Opening Ceremony stores.

In the coming months, Kenta Matsushige will furthermore have the opportunity to learn from fashion artisan workshops brought together under Chanel’s subsidiary Paraffection. The new sponsor of the fashion and photography festival will thus give the Grand Prize winner, whose 15,000 euro award is financed by Première Vision, the opportunity to collaborate with specialty ateliers such as Lemarié and Lesage.

Finally, Matsuhige will have the option of free reign on a collection for the French brand Petit Bateau, a tradition begun last year with a soon-to-be released capsule collection by Satu Maraanen.

The Ukrainian finalist Yulia Yefimtchuk, with her raw and rebellious collection, was surprised to receive a special mention. "We spent hours deliberating between these young talents,” said Humberto Leon and his partner and best friend, Carol Lim. “So we decided to create a special award on behalf of Opening Ceremony shops.”

Leon and Lim, additionally represented on the jury by their head purchaser, Carol Song (left above), have selected collections by the Ukrainian designer for two consecutive seasons.

Richemont’s brand Chloé also doubled up on Sunday night at Hyères. Instead of one single designer as usual, two finalists were chosen by brand CEO, Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye (photo below): Liselore Frowijn and Roshi Porkar for their interpretations of the modern Chloé woman, a fashion exercise imposed on finalists for the past three years that will allow them to go home with 15,000 euros each.

Finally, the Prix Public de la Ville d’Hyères was given to the French designer Coralie Marabelle, while the day before at the Palais de Tokyo, her compatriot Louis-Gabriel Nouchi had packed the house gathered in front of a live broadcast of the Hyères fashion show.

As for photography, the jury, chaired by the Brit Steve Hiett and notably including Manish Arora, awarded its Grand Jury Prize to the Italian Lorenzo Vitturi, while a special mention sponsored by Leica was given to Virginia Rebetez from Switzerland. The French photographer Oriane Lopez won the School of Visual Arts Award, while the Prix du Public honored a second Swiss photographer, Marie Rime.