DESIGNERS’ ROW: Gareth Pugh, Julien Dossena, Pierre Hardy, Charlotte Chesnais and William Klein were among the guests who sat front row at the fashion show at the International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères, France, which ends Monday. Dossena, Hardy and Chesnais are on the jury that will choose the winner of the Première Vision Grand Prize on Sunday.
“I don’t often go to fashion shows,” said Pugh, a member of the photography jury this year, which is presided over by Klein. It marks the first time Pugh has attended the festival, which has been a crucial launchpad for many fashion designers, including Viktor & Rolf, Christian Wijnants and Anthony Vaccarello. Pugh, who for his part scooped the 2008 ANDAM award, has one piece of advice for young talents: “There is a lot of greed around. Do things that feel genuine and honest; it’s good to do your own things, not listen to much.”
The designer is working on costumes for a production at Paris’ Opera Garnier, slated to open in September. “It’s called ‘Eligabalio.’ It was written 300 years ago by Cavalli, not Roberto — Francesco,” he said with a laugh. Before that, he’s off to New York next week for the Costume Institute Gala on May 2. “I did an interview with Andrew Bolton for the catalogue of the exhibit ‘Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.’ I am going to wear a very classic tuxedo for the ball. Huntsman is dressing me. It is quite nice to wear something from Savile Row for this exhibition,” he said.
“The exhibition is great,” Klein remarked about the showcase staged at the landmark Villa Noailles to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his film “Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?” The photographer has another exhibition in the pipeline: a major retrospective opening on June 15 at the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan.
Galeries Lafayette, a patron of the festival, financed the live stream of the Hyères fashion show on Saturday night, beaming images to the Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris, the city center of Toulon as well as Beijing and Shanghai, at the Galeries Lafayette units there.