The 41st International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories in Hyères closed this week with its Grand Jury Prize for fashion going to Yui Chen.
Chen’s collection, titled Food Cover, built its argument from volume, garments that held their own shape rather than following the body’s.
The jury responded to a vision that treated structure as content, with silhouettes assembled rather than draped.
Chen becomes the first Chinese designer to take the festival’s top fashion award, a distinction the competition has been slow to record in four decades of editions.
This edition ran under new leadership, with Valérie Duport presiding over a festival that has been rethinking how it frames emerging talent.
What the jury rewarded was risk. Chen’s garments resist the easy read, and several looks required explanation at close range.
That is a harder proposition in a market that asks young labels to be legible instantly.
