There will be no jury presidents at this year’s Hyères Fashion and Photography Festival, nor any actors, journalists or other personalities among jury members. For its 40th edition, the renowned emerging designer competition has changed its formula, opting for three juries consisting exclusively of high-calibre industry professionals. The organisers have in fact picked 10 of the most exciting creative directors from the fashion scene for the fashion competition’s jury, 10 of the most talented accessories designers for each of the accessories competition’s categories (shoes, jewellery, hats, etc.), and 10 renowned photographers to judge the photography competition.

The composition of the festival’s juries was revealed on the evening of Wednesday January 29 at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, when the festival’s founder and CEO, Jean-Pierre Blanc, officially launched the 40th edition of the Hyères International Fashion, Photography and Accessories Festival, scheduled on October 16-19, 2025, announcing the competitions’ finalists and the jury members.

For the last four decades, the Hyères Festival has supported the fashion industry and been at the forefront of its progress, as shown by this year’s jury members, many of whom won the competition and kickstarted their careers in the Mediterranean city, or have previously served as jury presidents. The fashion competition’s jury includes names of the calibre of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Alexandre Mattiussi, who founded AMI Paris in 2010, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, active with his own label since 2017, Grace Wales Bonner, who founded her Wales Bonner label in 2014, and Pelagia Kolotouros, Lacoste’s creative director since 2023.

The other fashion jury members are designers who have already distinguished themselves in Hyères: Julien Dossena, who has been in charge of style at Rabanne since 2013, having won the festival’s special jury prize in 2006, and served as jury president in 2016; and the creative directors of Viktor & Rolf, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, festival winners in 1993, who founded their label the same year.
 
Others are Christelle Kocher, who spearheads her own label, Koché, and the Lemarié maison d’art, who chaired the accessories jury in 2018; Louis Gabriel Nouchi, a festival finalist in 2014, when he won the Galeries Lafayette grant, and launched his LGN label in 2017; and finally Marine Serre, who launched her eponymous label the same year, when she too won the grant offered by the Parisian department store group.

For the Accessories category, the organisers have invited three former jury presidents: celebrity footwear designer Christian Louboutin, who was president in 2021; jewellery designer Charlotte Chesnais (president in 2019); and Pierre Hardy (president in 2017), who founded his eponymous brand in 1999 and has been for 25 years the creative director of footwear, costume jewellery and fine jewellery at Hermès.

In addition to these three personalities, the other jury members are Stephanie D’Heygere, founder of the eponymous accessories brand and a jewellery designer for labels like Diesel, Jacquemus and Jean Paul Gaultier; Barcelona-based designer Adriana Manso, head of jewellery brand La Manso; jewellery designer Elie Top; Florence Tétier, a jewellery designer and former creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier; footwear designer Olivier Jault; and milliners Philip Treacy and Priscilla Royer, the latter the creative director of Maison Michel.

The photography competition jury features many fashion photographers who took part in the festival, for example Dominican Luis Alberto Rodriguez, born in New York, who won the competition in 2017 and chaired the jury in 2023; Pierre Debusschere, jury president in 2022; Italian photographer Paolo Roversi, jury president in 2020; Tim Walker of the UK, president in 2017; Norwegian Sølve Sundsbø, who made his name in Hyères, winning the photography prize in 1999.

The other members of the festival’s top-notch photography jury are Dutch duo Inez & Vinoodh, Malick Bodian from Senegal, and French photographers Tess Petronio and Karim Sadli.