This French Riviera Design Showcase Delivers On Emerging Talent

For those lucky enough to be sunning themselves in the south of France right now, there are two sister design shows worth peeling away from the beach for. Split across a pair of historic and impressive — yet totally different — venues in the neighboring Riviera towns of Hyères and Toulon, the annual Design Parade festival and competition brings together established and emerging designers as part of two season-spanning exhibitions. Design Parade has long been a particularly great opportunity to spy up-and-coming French talent, and there’s more than enough to get us excited in this year’s edition.

Let’s start in Hyères, where the festival is focused on contemporary design, and the exhibitions center around the modernist Villa Noailles, which has hosted the festival since 2006. For this year’s competition, the Grand Prix du Jury was awarded to Sacha Parent and Valentine Tiraboschi, who create molded sand ornaments that explore how decorative elements can be structural. Among our faves are Simon Stanislawski’s sculptural furniture made from folded discarded mattresses, crazy metal-shell vases with an iridescent sheen by Danae Dasyra and Joe Bradford, and a paper and beeswax screen by Gabriel Hafner.

This year’s guest of honor and prize jury president — the French-born, Guadalajara-based designer Fabien Cappello — has also installed his colorful, gradient-striped furniture within a large room at Villa Noailles. The clashing hues of sofa and armchair upholstery contrast the stark white walls and glass floor, while on an adjacent terrace are Cappello’s deck chair-like seats, which comprise striped fabric suspended between parallel bars that connect butter-yellow drums serving as planters. In another space, occupied by green plinths and rattan blinds hung from the ceiling, are Yassine Ben Abdallah’s white ceramic vessels, each encircled by a woven dish at different heights. There’s also a display of lighting by late ceramic artist L.Y. Bonnet, whose pieces are presented on white blocks atop a terracotta-tiled roof, and a showcase of paintings by Marie-Laure de Noailles after whom the villa is named. The exhibitions at Villa Noailles are on show until September 1.

Over in Toulon’s 18th-century Ancient Évêché, where the focus is on interior design, the all-French prize finalists have installed decidedly surreal environments across multiple rooms. Alice Roux and Mattia Listowski’s space resembles an abstract train carriage, in which a deep teal-toned room under a yellow pillowy ceiling features “windows” with pastel scenes, plus a small bathroom that’s visible through a stained-glass pane. A dreamy interior by Sébastien Gafari and Sara Guédès is decorated with dappled pastel hues that extend to the coffered ceiling, while furniture modules in slightly darker tones are piled on the sandy floor. Also in pale shades, Willie Morlon’s charming vignette includes trompe l’oeil details across the walls and hand-drawn flowers on furniture pieces adapted from classical shapes — which won him the Grand Prix Design Parade Toulon.

Other highlights include an exhibition by Toulon’s 2024 guest of honor and jury chair, Marseille-based architect Marion Mailaender, whose installation Résidence Vue Mer combines vintage and contemporary pieces through several terracotta-tiled spaces to evoke an oh-so Mediterranean home. Marisol Santana and Emily Chakhtakhtinsky shift the mood to a darker, more sultry vibe with their chocolate-toned À l’Ombre de la Nuit, while the courtyard garden, Jardin Eveché, has been enveloped in a green and white, haphazardly checkered wall mural by Maximilien Pellet. The Toulon exhibitions run until November 3.