Hyères Festival Founder Steps Down From Parent Organization Villa Noailles

PARIS — Marking the end of an era for the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories — Hyères, its founder Jean-Pierre Blanc has stepped down as managing director of Villa Noailles, the festival’s parent organization.

Contacted by WWD, the association said Blanc had exited the role in May to concentrate the artistic direction of its cultural events, which also includes the Design Parade festival in Hyères and Toulon.

This comes after a recent audit by the French ministry of culture’s general inspectorate of cultural affairs highlighted a debt of 3.8 million euros in the association’s financial results for 2023.

In the interim, Bénédicte Lefeuvre, former regional director of cultural affairs for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, was named administrator by the French ministry of culture. 

Blanc’s successor as managing director has not yet been named by the Villa Noailles executive board, with candidates expected to go through a vetting process that also involves its public and main private partners.

Pascale Mussard will remain president of the association.

Meanwhile, the 2025 editions of the Design Parade and the Hyères fashion and photography festivals, respectively scheduled for late June and mid-October, will take place as planned.

“They will be adapted to be coherent with the new budgetary capacity but no cancelation of events is being considered to date,” the association told WWD in an email. “The core of [our] DNA — support to emerging design, accessibility and international reach — will be preserved.” 

Its accounts for 2023 showed an annual deficit of 650,000 euros and unpaid supplier invoices to the tune of 2.7 million euros. Figures for 2024 were not yet tallied at press time. 

“We have already paid over 1 million euros in [outstanding invoices] since the beginning of 2025, prioritizing artists and suppliers who were in greater difficulty,” the association said.

Since Lefeuvre’s arrival in May, a plan to pay off the remaining debt and a budget with appropriate liquidities for 2025 have been put in place.

“Starting this year, we are dedicating 845,000 euros from our annual budget to pay the remainder of our outstanding debt while maintaining the quality of our cultural offer,” the group said.

Also among remedial actions are prioritizing artistic spend and building greater governance and transparency with local public stakeholders. 

Founded in 1986, the Villa Noailles association has a budget of around 6 million euros a year and employs 20 permanent staff.

It receives public funding from local, regional and national institutions such as the cities of Hyères and Toulon as well as the French ministry of culture.

Private sponsors, which contribute between 35 and 50 percent of the budget depending on the year, include the likes of Chanel, Hermès, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Kering and Galeries Lafayette.

Revenue is also generated from an onsite boutique, sale of artistic licenses as well publications of artistic catalogues and books. A possible new source of income could be charging an entrance fee to the various sites managed by the association, including the Clos-Saint-Bernard, known colloquially as the “Villa Noailles” built by art patrons Marie-Laure and Charles de Noailles, and the historic bishopric building in Toulon.

Over the years, Blanc regularly alerted on the growing financial needs for the Villa Noailles and particularly the Hyères fashion and photography festival. In 2018, he told WWD it cost 2 million euros to produce each year, with the show, travel and hotel costs for guests accounting for most of the expenditure.