An International Cure for Fashion Week FOMO

Elias Medini shot to viral fame in June when he turned a cosy bar in Paris into an impromptu Dior fashion show watch party that drew nearly 300 people. Now, the fashion commentator and content creator — better known online as Lyas — is taking the concept global, staging a whirlwind tour of mostly unsanctioned fashion week viewings.

The first events will take place at a pub in London, then a bar in Milan — and for his native Paris, he’ll host an eight-day festival at La Caserne, a former fire station-turned-hub for emerging fashion talent that can house a thousand guests, with up to three streams of shows a day, replete with games, free alcohol, installations and merchandise.

There will be no RSVP or guest list of any kind. The price for admission in Paris? Wearing a red lip à la Medini’s signature look. (At London, where the party will be watching the Dilara Findikoglu show, the only condition, at Findikoglu’s request, is that attendees must be dressed in all black.) Among its corporate sponsors this year are the British Fashion Council, Meta, Whoopsee, MAC Cosmetics and Vestiaire Collective, which will provide gift cards and free clothes as prizes for attendees in Paris. Guests will also have a chance to win invitations to attend actual fashion shows alongside Medini.

Still, hosting a free event of this scale for a thousand people is a mammoth task.

Medini said coordinating the logistics of the affair on a short turnaround has taken a toll on him and his team, though for Medini, the watch parties are worth the effort. “Everyone is like, ‘Babe. Are you sure you can do this?’ Yes. I will sleep when I’m dead,” he said.

A third of the cost for the watch parties, which aren’t profitable, comes from Medini’s own pocket, he said. This year, the rest will be covered by his sponsors.

Medini has lofty ambitions for the future of the passion project: He wants to take the event to every city with a fashion week in the world and open it up to as many people as possible, including via televised streaming.

In the future, he’s willing, albeit grudgingly, to create an RSVP list, though he’s loath to sacrifice spontaneity. The success of this year’s circuit — Medini is anticipating an increase from a few hundred attendees at his last soiree to up to a thousand this time around — may provide the key to whether the watch party can remain operational and feasible, much less expand.

He’s banking on the guests’ sheer volume to attract future partners to the event, and has invited potential sponsors to witness the outing firsthand.

Medini’s endgame, however, remains the same as it’s always been: democratising fashion.

“It took me so long to enter this industry,” Medini said, recalling the times when he had to sneak into fashion shows sans invitation. “I know exactly that feeling. I want to tell [my guests], ‘Don’t worry. At some point, the doors will open.’”

To introduce this iteration of his fashion show watch parties, Medini directed and released a short film, produced by Premier Cri.