PARIS – A new era opens at Villa Noailles, the organizer of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories of Hyères.
On Thursday, the French ministry of culture announced it had agreed to the nomination of Hugo Lucchino as managing director of the association, “in full agreement” with stakeholders that include Pascale Mussard, Villa Noailles’ president, as well as the elected officials of the region, metropolitan area and cities of Toulon and Hyères.
“The project of Hugo Lucchino [is] in perfect accord with the history, the territory and the challenges of the Villa Noailles and attests to his in-depth knowledge of the fashion and design sectors,” the ministry said in a statement. “His programming is articulated around the two festivals – the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories of Hyères and the Design Parade, as well as the patrimonial valorization of the place.”
A graduate of the Université Paris I Sorbonne, the École du Louvre and the Sciences Po university, Lucchino is currently general secretary of Paris’ Palais Galliera fashion museum and is expected to take his position at Villa Noailles in the fall.
During his five-and-a-half-year tenure at Galliera, Lucchino oversaw the end of renovation and extension works as well as an internal reorganization ahead of the museum’s reopening. He also worked on the conception and implementation of Galliera’s new scientific and cultural project.
Prior to that, Lucchino served for more than two years as general secretary of Le Signe, the national center for graphic arts, where he had started as director of administrative and financial affairs. Lucchino was instrumental in securing the institution’s classification as a center of contemporary art of national interest.
Lucchino succeeds founder Jean-Pierre Blanc, who stepped down in May to concentrate on the artistic direction of its cultural events.
The move came after an audit by the 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, including an annual deficit of 650,000 euros and unpaid supplier invoices to the tune of 2.7 million euros.
At the time, the association said it had paid more than 1 million euros in outstanding invoices since the beginning of 2025, “prioritizing artists and suppliers who were in greater difficulty.”
Named as interim administrator in May, Bénédicte Lefeuvre, former regional director of cultural affairs for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, oversaw a plan to pay off the remaining debt and put in place a budget with appropriate liquidities for 2025.
Also among remedial actions are prioritizing artistic spend and building greater governance and transparency with local public stakeholders.
This year’s Design Parade festival proceeded as planned in June. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the fashion, photography and accessories festival in Hyères will take place from Oct. 16 to 18, spanning three days rather than the traditional four.
Founded in 1986, the Villa Noailles association has a budget of around 6 million euros a year and employs 20 permanent staff.
Over the years, Blanc regularly raised the alarm 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.
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, have included the likes of Chanel, Hermès, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Kering, Galeries Lafayette, Supima, Chloé and Mercedes-Benz.
Revenue is also generated from an onsite boutique, sale of artistic licenses as well publications of artistic catalogs and books. Since July 1, an entrance fee has been charged 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.
