Hyères 2026: Belgian designer Matil Vanlint is among the ten fashion finalists
The winners of the 41st Hyères festival are due to be announced today. One of the ten fashion finalists trained in Brussels.
Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Pexels (Pexels License). Stock photo used for illustration; it is not from the event or brand in this story.
The International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories in Hyères, on France's Mediterranean coast, is one of the best-known launch pads for young designers. Its 41st edition has a Belgian name on the shortlist: Matil Vanlint, one of the ten finalists in the fashion competition.
According to the fashion publication da.paper, Vanlint trained at La Cambre in Brussels and at HEAD in Geneva, and is competing with a genderless collection. The festival's own artist page describes it as a unisex collection.
Who else is in the running
The ten finalists come from fashion schools across Europe and beyond, including Central Saint Martins in London, the Institut Français de la Mode and Parsons Paris, Polimoda in Florence and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Between them they show menswear, womenswear and genderless collections. The other finalists are Brais Albor Rodriguez, Sofia Castellon, Yui Chen, Loïs Cousin, Rachel Luurssen, Jennifer Milleder, Farnia Salim, Dieter Vlasich Obermann and Xiao Xu.
This year's fashion jury is chaired by Chemena Kamali, creative director of Chloé.
What happens next
da.paper reports that the winners will be announced on Saturday 17 October 2026, at an awards ceremony at Villa Noailles in Hyères. We'll update this story once the results are public.
Belgian designers and La Cambre graduates have a long history at Hyères, so this is one to watch for anyone following the next generation of Belgian fashion.
Source
Original reporting: da.paper.
Also reported by: Villa Noailles, finalist page, Métropole Toulon Provence Méditerranée, festival listing.
This is a short summary in our own words. Names and facts are as reported by the sources above; Wardrobe Compass has no commercial relationship with the brands mentioned.
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