ONCE IN A LIFETIME
Hyères, October 2024
Under the rays of the Mediterranean sun, the Villa Noailles was once again illuminated during the three days of the 39th edition of Hyères Festival, revealing talents as innovative as they were promising. Among them was the Belgian winner of the 38th edition of the fashion competition, IGOR DIERYCK, who presented his second collection titled Ad Fundum. Alongside him, the assertive silhouettes of ROMAIN BICHOT’s collection Call Me If You Get Lost – another young Belgian designer who graduated from La Cambre – competed this year winning the 19M and The Materials prizes.
As finalists and former winners, the two young designers collaborated with the Chanel artisan houses on different scales to rethink and create new silhouettes, asserting their creative identities and mastery of artisanal skills. The day after the first show, we chatted with Igor and Romain, faces of a new creative generation who embody with their work and perspectives the vast fashion ecosystem, so aptly described by Nicolas Di Felice, guest of honour and president of this year’s jury.
Igor Dieryck and Romain Bichot at 39th edition of Hyères Festival
How do you feel today, given your respective postures during this 39th festival edition?
Igor Dieryck: I think I'm a little more relaxed than Romain [Laughs]. Still, being on the jury is more pressure than I expected, and the other members are so incredible. I know we can change the lives of one or two people who present their work, so it's quite a responsibility.
Romain Bichot: The pressure's a bit off today, after the jury and the first show yesterday. Despite this pressure, it’s great to see the culmination of almost six months of work in a setting like this.
Igor, what are you judging today? What are you particularly sensitive to?
ID: For me, it's not really a question of style, because tastes and colours aren't really something we can discuss. I'm more sensitive to the overall universe, to whether the collection is clear and straightforward. I think what's most important is to perceive the strong and unique universe of each person and their work.
Left Call Me If You Get Lost by Romain Bichot
Right Ad Fundum by Igor Dieryck
You both presented collections last night: Romain, the one you're competing with, Igor, your second and new collection. How do you look at these collections and what do they symbolize?
RB: Presenting my work here is first an incredible opportunity. This collection is a continuation of my graduation collection at La Cambre, but I've started from scratch. It's great to have had a year to rework pieces and to have collaborated with art houses to push the work further and come up with something even more accomplished.
ID: We always say that the first collection is a way for people to discover us and that the second is more difficult because it's all about confirming what's been started, pleasing those who already like it and trying to appeal to new people. It was a real challenge for me to maintain a creativity and identity that I hope will be strong while evolving towards something even more mature and polished.
You have both collaborated with Chanel's artisan houses to create various pieces. How has this collaboration accompanied your creative process, enabling you, in your case Romain, to revisit and continue an existing collection, and for you, Igor, to create a new one?
RB: I was lucky enough to work with two houses, Lesage and Lemarié. With Lesage, we started from my silhouette with the mattress, which was originally plastic. The aim was to present this piece at the festival without using plastic. So, we reworked a trompe-l'œil material. The collaboration was very fluid, and it's quite incredible to see new things coming up. There's something almost magical about it.
ID: For me, it was another job, because I was starting from scratch. Right from the start, I asked myself how I could best use the know-how of the Chanel ateliers to elevate my collection. It's a different challenge from Romain’s. By the way, the silhouette you presented for the Chanel Prize is quite impressive because it's quite complicated to reinterpret an existing silhouette without overworking it. We always say in fashion that you have to stop at the right moment. I think you've come up with something that's in line with your collection, but where we can see that there's been a lot of long, hard manual work.
RB: Thanks! Unfortunately, I was so stressed last night that I could only see two of your silhouettes in the line-up. [Laughs] I took the time to look a bit more this morning, and the whole thing is really beautiful and accomplished, even if I still need to look at your fifteen silhouettes in more detail. [Laughs]
Call Me If You Get Lost by Romain Bichot
It's great to see how you look at each other's work! Do you see this festival as a place of transmission? Given the encounters and exchanges between jury members and candidates, the collaborations with artisan houses and, more generally, everything that happens during the three days of the festival?
ID: More than transmission, I'd say it's above all a question of asserting one's own identity. For the candidates, I think it's really this idea of discovering what you want to talk about and your personal identity within fashion, which is such a wide-ranging field.
RB: Indeed, the festival and everything that goes on before is a huge stepping stone for asserting the identity of who you are and what you do. As we're only asked to do seven silhouettes, it's an invitation to push them all to the limit. Working with ateliers that have a heritage is a way of receiving know-how while integrating it into our own universe. For example, I hadn't originally set out to integrate flowers into the mattress silhouette, but when I saw the flower workshop at Lemarié, where they make all the Chanel camellias, I came back to the image of old mattresses, which are also sometimes decorated with flowers. It's a very enriching process, leading us to things we hadn't thought of before.
Ad Fundum by Igor Dieryck
Speaking of heritage, you both work for major brands, Igor for Hermès and Romain for Balenciaga. Does working as junior designers for these houses influence your personal creative work?
ID: Designing is a daily practice for both of us. I don't want to speak on Romain's behalf, but I think whether we like it or not, it influences our creation. Personally, I've seen this year that I'm much more exigent with myself because I've been working in a house for a while now. I've been very demanding with my pieces, having them correspond to the level I want to reach and the present. If there's an influence, I'd say it's pretty positive.
RB: I agree with you. Working in a house is very professional. When you come out of school, you're doing everything on your own, then you get into this hustle and bustle where you realize that being a designer is a specific job and that there are a lot of things around [you]. It's a professional apprenticeship, but also an apprenticeship about yourself.
ID: In fact, the two are very complementary. We both work in large teams where the work is a bit chiselled. Making our own collection from A to Z also helps us understand the role and importance of each stage and each position. Personally, I now have a better understanding of each person's role within the company because I've also had to manage all aspects of my own collection, such as production follow-up, dispatch, etc. Designing for the festival and presenting a beautiful fashion show is also a way of really discovering the ins and outs of the different aspects of the job that you have to deal with every day.
Finally, how would you sum up this 39th edition of Hyères in a couple of words?
ID: Festive and diverse.
RB: Once in a lifetime.
Left Ad Fundum by Igor Dieryck
Right Call Me If You Get Lost by Romain Bichot
Left Call Me If You Get Lost by Romain Bichot
Right Ad Fundum by Igor Dieryck
Interview and photography by Hanna Pallot