Perched on the heights of Hyères, a dozen young fashion designers present their collections this weekend at the 39th Villa Noailles Festival, ‘the oldest fashion competition in the world’ according to its founder Jean-Pierre Blanc. The jury, which this year included the director of the Courrèges fashion house, saw models wearing embroidered mattresses, cardboard banana boxes and unstructured ballerina shoes. The competition, which is reserved for young school graduates, gives pride of place to artisanal practices and experimentation. "We can explore a lot more things, we have a lot more freedom. We're not talking about an archetypal garment", enthuses Romain Bichot, one of the finalists from Belgium. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES