Dolev Elron Takes Top Fashion Prize At Hyères Festival

HYÈRES, France — Israeli designer Dolev Elron won the top prize at the 39th edition of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories — Hyères on Sunday.

He impressed the jury headed by Courrèges artistic director Nicolas Di Felice with a collection of distorted menswear staples titled “Casual Turbulence.”

Based in Stockholm and trained at the Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, Elron is a junior designer in menswear at Acne Studios.

“It’s about distorting archetypes of hyper masculinity and basic items that we all have in our closet – recognizable and familiar,” he said at a showroom presentation. “This familiarity brings comfort and the comfort that it brings allows a space for disruption.”

To warp jeans, plaid shirts or a bomber jacket, he drew inspiration from the “unusual and unexpected effects on the most expected garments” he first distorted using digital software like Photoshop. The patterns he then developed from those new images hinged on each garment’s salient details like zippers, jean pockets or stripes for their twisting structures.

Among the standouts were the opening look with a shirt whose classic blue stripe warped subtly, culminating in a sculptural but discrete cuff; belted trousers that seemed to melt around the hip; and faux-denim shorts, with a twill-meets-jacquard textile developed with Lesage to fuse the swirling motifs into the weave.

Lauding the creative breadth of the 2024 fashion finalists, Di Felice said he’d been touched by the rawness of the works, which were a reminder that “from start to finish, our professions imply so much passion, so much heart,” he told WWD. “We are in a period of transition in fashion so it’s refreshing and important to see this.”

“There are no rules to suceed in fashion [anymore] and the past few years have shown us that you could become artistic director even when you’re a singer,” he continued.

Highlighting that there was a much greater variety in design approaches and techniques today – that “should be approached without judgement,” he noted – he still pointed out the importance of craft and know-how.

“There are so many professions that stem from making a garment that if [something] boils down to an Instagram gimmick, I ask myself whether this is truly fashion,” he said. “This brings real questions on what our [industry] is today.”

The Courrèges artistic director hoped finalists would walk away having taken jury conversations and encouragements to heart. “Whatever our discipline, the fact that we are doing is resisting, is living. And it’s already wonderful because they’re right in the middle of it,” he said.

Paris-based Belgian designer Romain Bichot, a graduate of La Cambre who recently joined Balenciaga as junior designer, scooped up both the Le19M Métiers d’Arts Prize in partnership with Chanel and L’Atelier des Matières Prize.

Inspired by a late-night cityscape filled with trash bags, construction sites and traffic cones, “Call Me If You Get Lost” recast these objects into surreal looks such as a dress with traffic cone-protrusions or clutches shaped like the protective wrapping of scaffolding.

A luxuriously embroidered and feathered look he’d worked on with feathers specialist Lemarié mimicked a mattress. It was inspired by a murder series that kicks off with a body rolled up in a mattress, the Belgian designer said.

Bichot took home a 20,000-euro purse for a project to be exhibited at next year’s festival and a further 10,000 euros’ worth of materials from L’Atelier des Matières.

Thanks to a biker jacket fusing tailoring canvas from bespoke jackets and pieces from his father’s racing suits, American designer Logan Monroe Goff scooped up the Mercedes-Benz Sustainability Prize, which distinguishes the designer who best applied eco-conception practices in their work.

Currently pursuing a masters’ degree in fashion design at Parsons Paris, Texas-born Monroe Goff cut his teeth at Egonlab and Isabel Marant. He is keen to continue garnering experience but said his endgame was to have his own label, which “may happen in five years – or 20 years.”

His biggest takeaway of the Hyères experience – even before looking at prizes and purses – was being able to show what he had in mind in an unfettered way. “This opportunity is my biggest takeaway and that’s super cool.”

For his saccharine-sweet “Sugar Rush” collection inspired by instant gratification – complete with Instagram-famous cake-slice shoe – Tel Aviv-based Israeli designer Tal Maslavi was awarded a special jury mention.

Berlin-based Gaëlle Lang Halloo’s soccer-inspired sportswear, nodding to France’s 1998 World Cup win, won the public’s heart and votes.

The accessories grand prize went to London-based Chinese designer Chiyang Duan and his “Distorted Objects” collection playing on upgrades to extend the lifecycle of eyewear and bags, turning them into organic-looking creatures.

Meanwhile, Brussels-based La Cambre graduate Clara Besnard rose to the challenge of creating a belt or leather jewelry to win the Hermès prize with a clutch of belts that looked like they’d been casually slung around the neck like a scarf. The public prize went to Mexican designer Maria Nava and her robotic creations that react to the ambiance.

A special accessories mention was awarded to Swiss designer Camille Combremont, who drew inspiration from her family’s camping holidays for a lineup of multi-function accessories that went from a basket with a detachable lining to a handsome cape that doubles up as a tent. She will get a residency in Achilles Ion Gabriel’s Majorca headquarters.

“It’s really raw expression from young people, what they think design should look like, really unfiltered,” said accessories jury member Imruh Asha, a stylist and creative consultant who cofounded fashion label Zomer. “Now we’re going to give them feedback and they’re going to be biased forever but this is what they think, unfiltered still.”

In photography, Arhant Shrestha, a Bard College graduate now based in Kathmandu, Nepal, walked away with the 7L Photography Grand Prize for his exploration of an imaginary nocturnal version of his home city, to “capture the nostalgia of my past imagination before the reality of Kathmandu today could wash it away.”

Paris-based Basile Pelletier took home the American Vintage prize with a series of analog photographs with a touch of strangeness to them, while the Public Prize went to Clément Boudet.

British lensman Thomas Duffield was handed a special mention for chronicling the eight-year process of rebuilding a relationship strained by addiction.