October 20, 2025
Combining innovation and craftsmanship, French designer Alyssa Cartaut is rethinking footwear through European flax-linen and 3D printing. Her approach embodies a new generation of responsible designers, where natural materials and emerging technologies come together.
During the 40th edition of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories in Hyères, held at the Villa Noailles from 16 to 19 October 2025, French designer Alyssa Cartaut won the City of Hyères Prize – Fashion Accessories category for her collection “The Cushion Issue.”
Some of the shoes in this collection feature 3D-printed elements made from flax-linen, combining technological innovation with artisanal craftsmanship.
A graduate of École Duperré (Paris) and La Cambre (Brussels), Alyssa Cartaut is an accessories and footwear designer who has previously collaborated with the fashion houses Celine and Tom Ford.
With her collection “The Cushion Issue”, she draws inspiration from the world of the bedroom, which she perceives both as a refuge and as a boundary.
This intimate space becomes the starting point for a reflection on protection, softness and distance.
At the heart of the collection, the muleshoe symbolises this tension between shelter and exposure. Inspired by the comforting gesture of slipping into a slipper, it becomes a true “footroom” - a protective and sensory space.
The designer’s shoes seems to inflate and deflate, evoking shifting cushions that adapt their shape to the body. Through this play of volume, she explores the relationship between the individual and their personal space. Her approach combines poetic forms, innovative materials and a more responsible mode of production, highlighting both craftsmanship and a contemporary conceptual vision.
Alyssa Cartaut experimented with a PLA filament infused with linen, used in 3D printing to produce structural components such as lasts, soles and heels. This material, supplied by a member of the Alliance, allowed her to reduce plastic use while improving shock absorption and giving her creations a natural lightness.
PLA filament infused with linen has enabled me to design precise, flexible shapes while limiting the environmental impact of production.
Alyssa Cartaut
Alyssa’s process combines digital technologies with traditional techniques. Through 3D modelling, she designs complex internal forms – geometric heels and anatomical soles – that would be difficult to achieve using conventional methods. To ensure technical precision and refined detail, she collaborated with Enzo Colin, a product designer specialising in 3D design. This dialogue between craftsmanship and innovation embodies a new approach to accessory design.
Alyssa Cartaut’s project was supported by the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp and by its member Nanovia. The Alliance facilitated access to materials and connected the designer with key players in the flax and 3D-printing industries.
Every year, the Alliance supports the young finalists of the Hyères Festival by offering them: supplies of certified European linen, privileged access to the expertise of companies in the European linen industry, and information on the value of the Masters of FLAX FIBRE™ and Masters of LINEN™ certifications.
Alyssa Cartaut’s award highlights the technical and aesthetic richness of certified European linen. It reflects the Alliance’s mission: to promote access for young designers to renewable materials and to encourage experimentation with natural fibres.
By supporting such initiatives, the Alliance reaffirms its commitment to promoting European flax-linen as a sustainable and forward-looking resource in the world of innovative and responsible fashion.
The Alliance also wishes to thank Sofia Hermens Fernandez, finalist of the festival, for her collection “Semiotics of Girlhood.”
Her project combined pleating, felting, machine knitting, quilting and digital printing in a poetic and engaged reinterpretation of the figure of girlhood.
In collaboration with Texmoda, Klasikine, and the Montex embroidery workshop also, the designer incorporated European linen into her creations, demonstrating the versatility and modernity of this natural fibre.
The Alliance commends her creativity and commitment, and encourages her to continue pursuing her artistic and technical explorations.
We would like to recall that the Swiss-Chilean designer Lucas Emilio Brunner, a 2022 graduate of La Cambre in Brussels, won the Grand Jury Prize for Fashion at this year’s festival. By reinterpreting the male wardrobe and drawing inspiration from the 1960s Ivy League style, he developed an original body of work rooted in the dissection of balloons and the study of musical instrument structures. The result is a distinctive masculine silhouette, imbued with a sense of timeless elegance.
Founded in 1986 and based at the Villa Noailles, the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories in Hyères is one of the most important platforms for emerging designers. Each year, finalists present their collections to an international jury and to the public, in a setting where innovation, daring and craftsmanship come together.
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