When attendees gathered last month at Les Invalides in Paris for Jonathan Anderson’s debut show for Dior, the mood was solemn. The celebrities, editors and executives, gathered together in a complex of 17th-century buildings that honor France’s military history, sat in quiet anticipation.
Across town, a far more vocal crowd of students, writers and tourists packed into a bar and sipped beer, cracked jokes and erupted into cheers or groans as each of Mr. Anderson’s looks was revealed.
The second crowd was at a watch party thrown by Elias Medini, 26, a fashion commentator and critic known by many as Lyas. The hastily assembled get-together was Mr. Medini’s response to not receiving an invite to the Dior show.
“I was sad and I was like: So what am I going to do? Watch it at home on my TV or in the metro on my phone?” he said in an interview.
Mr. Medini took action. He posted a message on social media in which he invited all of Paris to watch the show with him at Le Saint Denis, a cafe and bar in the city’s 10th Arrondissement. He brought his TV from home and arranged the seats to accommodate a modest audience. To his surprise, nearly 300 people showed up. And unlike a traditional fashion show, there was no list at the door, no assigned seating and no opinions drawn out in hushed tones.
“Real people react to art, but fashion people don’t,” Mr. Medini said. “Is the snobbism so high that you can’t even smile?”
“I really tried to break all of that down and to make it accessible to new people,” he added.
Mr. Medini is used to being a fashion outsider. He grew up in Rouen, a small town in Normandy, France, where he often had no one to discuss fashion with. During the pandemic, he began posting quick, unfiltered reaction videos to magazine covers and runway shows. As his follower count grew, brands took notice and many invited him to their shows and presentations.
He quickly learned, however, that while the fashion industry thrives on newness, shaking up the structure and being candid about how he felt about a collection was frowned upon. Especially if he wanted to keep getting brand deals and make a living doing this work.
“It’s an industry where no one really wanted to speak their mind,” Mr. Medini said. “Me as well. I entered the business and I started shutting my mouth. At one point, I realized that I was losing my integrity and I was losing the very reason that brought me here in the first place.”
Mr. Medini said he reached a breaking point after he attended a Dior show by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the company’s former creative director, last September. He described it as “one of the worst shows I had seen at the time” and decided to post a critical review as a way to “tell people that I could not be bought.”
Because of the negative review, Mr. Medini feared that LVMH, the parent company of Dior, would blacklist him from shows. While he did not receive an invite to Mr. Anderson’s show, he said it was for a less dramatic reason: The brand had opted not to invite influencers — a label Mr. Medini bristles at.
There were, however, other consequences to the review. He said he was dismissed from his role at Interview magazine, where he had been a fashion correspondent, because the company did not want to damage its relationship with LVMH. Representatives for Interview did not respond to requests for comment.
Determined to make the best of things, Mr. Medini felt a watch party was a way to reclaim space and open the Dior show up to other fashion fans. To many of the people who attended, it was a perfect solution.
“It’s like the Champions League final for the girls and the gays,” said Nelly Inayetyan, 22, a graphic design student in Paris. “The atmosphere was so special. For a couple of hours, a regular cafe turned into a buzzing fashion hub.”
Ms. Inayetyan, who doesn’t consider herself to be a staunch follower of the fashion industry, found the experience inviting. Being able to see a show in the presence of others like her made it memorable.
For Diane Martins, 17, who typically watches the shows from her bedroom, the watch party was the kind of experience she had been craving. For the past two years, she’s waited outside venues during Paris Fashion Week and has consistently emailed designers, hoping to find an open seat. She was able to attend one show after she elbowed her way to the front, and then stood for its entirety.
The watch party was a much easier experience.
“I met two girls and they were so nice,” Ms. Martins said of the connections she made at the watch party. “We talked about the show, about multiple things happening in the fashion industry, because there is a lot going on right now. It was great.”
The concept of a watch party for a fashion show isn’t new. Last year, the Council of Fashion Designers of America partnered with Rockefeller Center to stream shows during New York Fashion Week. Vogue hosts watch events for Vogue World. Victoria’s Secret staged one at the Penn District to mark its return to the runway. The format has also been popular for other events, like showings of “Love Island,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the Met Gala.
What made Mr. Medini’s different, he said, was the absence of polish and corporate sponsors. (Mr. Medini said he accepted an offer from Instagram to cover the bar tab.)
Since the party, he’s fielded offers from brands asking him to stage similar events. He has, thus far, declined. He plans to host another party in September for Matthieu Blazy’s debut at Chanel. He’s also considering taking the format to other cities, but only if he can do it on his own terms.
“The importance of this event was for it to be counter industry. For it to be a reaction against the fact that we’re not invited,” Mr. Medini said. “I don’t want to do it in a posh place. I don’t want to do it somewhere that doesn’t reflect who we are.”
Yola Mzizi is a reporter for the Styles section and a member of the 2025-2026 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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