LYAS GOES LIVE

SPOTLIGHT

After being skipped over for a coveted invite to a designer's eagerly awaited debut show, Lyas decided to bring high fashion to the masses via livestream

More than anything, Elias Medini, a 26-year-old fashion critic-cum-content creator-slash-model, needed to see Jonathan Anderson's first Dior Men show last summer in Paris. "I wanted to witness what I thought was going to be fashion history," he says. Except Lyas, as Medini is known online, was not invited.

Lyas instead asked friends to watch it at his favorite bar, Le Saint Denis. He brought his own TV. Approximately 350 people came. "They just want to gather and share their love for fashion," he says, "and see it together at the same time. " The best parties are unsanctioned.

For Fashion Week in the fall, he upgraded to a larger venue, La Caserne, a fashion incubator with a courtyard, and christened it La Watchparty. A massive wooden re-creation of his MacBook broadcasts the livestreams of about 15 shows, including Matthieu Blazy's Chanel debut. He doesn't charge admission, nor is there assigned seating.

Next, he'll continue to grow his parties and cover men's Fashion Week in Paris and Couture Week this winter, but he's still outside of the system. He says, "The real passionate people are actually not at the show, they're at the watch party." But now he faces a conundrum: What happens when the outsider becomes the insider? When he was invited to attend Chanel in October, he livestreamed his experience for those gathered at the watch party before returning to the party—with models from the show in tow.

MARISA MELTZER