Ly.as Fashion Show Watch Parties

Our holiday season is here—fashion month. It's chaotic, it’s flashy, it's exciting. As a viewer of many fashion months now, I’ve always found it hard to make myself feel included. To be able to consume the fashion being shown without being an A- or B-list celebrity. Sure, I can watch the fashion shows on YouTube, see pictures on Vogue Runway, and watch all of the month through the eyes of my desired influencers. But I've never found any kind of camaraderie or community towards these shows.

As broad as fashion is, it’s also a shockingly niche industry. Fashion is more than sheets of stitched fabric; it is everything that connects us together. It is an art form that everyone involves themselves in. However, there is a fairly small group of us in the grand scheme of the universe, that really understand it, really feel it, and really want to experience it with others that think the same. True fashion is a very exclusive, mysterious club.

That is, until one influencer saw this white space—this community—for the people like us, the people that don't want to sit in a room and watch a sports game just to be excited with other people, but to be in a room with other people and watch a live fashion show.

These locks around fashion felt overwhelmingly strong until Parisian influencer Ly.as started fashion week watch parties, where he sets up a TV in a public place, invites his followers via social media, and live streams fashion shows throughout each respected fashion week.

He started this tradition last year, bringing together a small crowd of people to watch the show outside of a bar, as if it were a French rugby or soccer game. Through his growth and following on social media, he cultivated a new culture around fashion show watch parties. He created a community with very normal people in fashion—not celebrities, influencers, or press hosts, but simply people.

Fashion shows seem so daunting, so famous. And that’s exactly what the industry wants an average person to think. But for us—the people that don't have the credentials to be invited to this exclusive event but are nevertheless curious and invested in the shows happening—he has created a community, a way for normal people to watch these shows and have a community around them to appreciate the show alongside.

The most recent Paris fashion week brought new rules to his watch party game. He created a structure that was more of a stage with a movie theater sized screen which exactly resembled a MacBook. He gained a following on his Instagram and TikTok accounts, just for the watch parties: releasing the date, time, location, and what show will be played. The event is free for everyone, and many took him up on this offer. The capacity of two thousand people were present for many of the shows, and there were countless people standing in line waiting outside to get into his event.

This is the prelude for a fashion revolution. We finally have a way to appreciate our art together. Fashion shows don't have to be an event that only the posh, highbrow, mysterious, exclusive people are allowed to appreciate together. High fashion is art, and art is for all. Art is to be experienced and celebrated together. Ly.as is merely expanding the stage for all fashion lovers, making us the celebrity of our own art, allowing us to love together.

What do you think about public watch parties? Leave a comment below.