In a Spring/Summer 2024 season, which ended with amazing fashion appropriations of work wear, led by Prada and its barn jackets and Bundeswehr parkas, the winner of the 38th edition of Hyères’ international festival of fashion, photography and accessories Igor Dieryck hit on the same vein with his clever interpretation of hotel staff uniforms. Let’s not forget that the uniform of a bellhop in an Austrian hotel inspired the famous Chanel jacket. Karl Lagerfeld famously commemorated the fact with a show in Salzburg in 2014 and shot a movie in which none other than current Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director Pharrell Williams starred as a bellhop. Dieryck used his experience as a receptionist in a hotel while being a student to explore the idea of an alter ego through uniforms and aptly called the collection “Yessir.” He also won the Le19M Métiers d’Art prize with an outfit of couture like proportions which resembled a feather duster which is used daily in hotel rooms with its yellow satin skirt and hooded top. He took it to new heights by working with le 19M’s Lemarié to supply the feathers and craftsmanship.

Needless to say, Chanel is a major sponsor of the entire festival and designer Virginie Viard based her latest RTW collection shown two weeks ago on the 1920’s style of the Côte d’Azur and her show set in the Grand Palais Éphémère reflected the architectural outline of the Villa Noailles, which celebrates its 100^th anniversary. Even the weather gods were on the side of founder Jean-Pierre Blanc and his crew of a more than a hundred helpers which made the exhibitions in the courtyard and around the Villa Noailles shine bathed in sunlight.

One of the sponsors Mercedes-Benz is also making sure that the festival takes its sustainable conscience seriously and has inaugurated an eco-responsible collection award which was taken home by Petra Fagerstrom from Sweden. Fagerstrom showed work inspired by her grandmother, who was a parachutist in the former Soviet Union. She was ACHTUNG’s favorite for the Jury prize with her inventive fabric pleating and a collection, which looked plausible already on a Parisian runway and had less of a student air than the rest. Using materials that included an upcycled parachute and dead stock leathers, the collection entitled  “Grand-mère Volante” also won the L’Atelier des Matières prize.

The German automaker is a partner of the festival since 2012 and while the company has lately reduced its partnerships with international fashion weeks and fleet supplies, it now focuses on eco-responsible behavior aligning with designers who reflect and champion these values as a key brand message. So it brought along its latest fleet of electric cars for select festivalgoers to experience including the writer of this text – plus invited vegan leather pioneer designer Sandra Sándor of Nanushka as a mentor to the finalists and to share her experiences and struggles as a pioneer in the field.

Mercedes-Benz also provided components from old vehicles including air bags, seat covers and belts, floor mats and convertible roof fabric for designers which found perfect use in South Korean designer Bo Kwon Min’s collection who created a mille-feuille structure of old seat belts for one of his looks. Memo to Mercedes-Benz. Give a call to Demna who famously used broken car mirrors and floor mats for one of his first Balenciaga collections to make bags and skirts.