Explosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères Festival

Festival of Hyères

Haute Couture

City of Hyres Award and 1.2.3. Award

Founded in 1986 by Jean Pierre Blanc, the International Festival of Fashion, Photography, and Accessories of Hyères in France takes place yearly at Villa Noailles, a landmark cubist architecture built in the 1920’s by Mallet-Stevens for art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles. Viktor & Rolf, Anthony Vaccarello, Gaspard Yurkievich among other luminaries made their first steps in Hyères.

For the 20th edition, I proposed 10 haute couture silhouettes, an explosive fashion show performance, and an experimental short film. My motivation letter read :  

If luxury embodies the dream of our era,
then our era itself could be considered a collective dream.

Illustrations.Collaboration with Benoit Prevot

Villa Noailles, Hyeres, France

Submission packaging, showroom and exhibition

Explosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères Festival

Immolated chiffon cocktail dress. Suede gloves with skinned lace. Wedged shoes.

Body bag blazer. Cotton t-shirt with integrated pulsating heart system. Wool pleated skirt with prosthetic eye buttons.

My creative process involved appropriating international news headlines as personal dreams and engaging in psychotherapy. After months of regular sessions, the therapist, unaware of my artistic project, diagnosed our era with a "paralyzing fear of identity loss".

This insight became the foundation of my collection, which starkly explores the dichotomy between collective consciousness and the promise of modern luxury.

Draped chiffon evening dress embroidered with gunshot holes and war bullet shells. Head handbag with orthopedic-hand.

Silk jersey draped t-shirt equipped with an explosive device. Elephantiasis Jeans lined with horsehair.

Explosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères Festival
Explosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères FestivalExplosive Couture by David Gil at the 20th Hyères Festival

Sweater knitted with medical gauze bandages. Suede skirt stitched with surgical tread and perforated with gunshot holes. Bullet-proof Heart glass handbag.

Sculpted wool coat. Pleated chiffon cocktail dress. Leather shoes with moulded revolver, bullet shells, and barrel heels.  

Sculpted vest in horsehair. Cashmere pleated skirt with prosthetic eye buttons. Kamikaze Corset sculpted in  iron (collaboration with Nicolas Babinet)

Evening armors embroidered with warfare ammunition, skirts perforated with bullet holes, kamikaze corsets, body bag blazers, immolated chiffon cocktail dresses, revolver-molded stilettos or heads worn as fashion accessories went down the runway using the language of luxury to invite the viewers to “dream” of contemporary uncertainty.

"One Second" – An Explosive Fashion Performance at the Festival of Hyères by David Gil

One Second

Fashion Show Performance

Festival of Hyeres

City of Hyres Award and 1.2.3. Award

In total silence facing the jury presided by Azzedine Alaia, a model wearing special effects hidden under a white top suddenly blew up in the middle of the runway, like a kamikaze.

For a single, paralyzing second, the audience was gripped by fear, as haute couture dramatically transformed into a symbol of contemporary identity.

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