Who really gets access to Fashion Week now? From Paris to Milan, La Watch Party is opening up the front row beyond the guest list
Fashion Week has long been defined by access: who gets invited, who is seen, and who remains outside the room. This season, that boundary started to break down. Across New York, Paris and beyond, audiences gathered far from the official guest list, watching runway shows unfold in real time inside the world’s most exclusive venues.
While editors, buyers and celebrities took their assigned seats for the Autumn/Winter 2026 collections, a different kind of front row was forming elsewhere—arguably the most interesting and inclusive yet. No invitations required, just proximity, participation, and a growing network of fashion watch parties driven by an Instagram-born figure: Lyas.
It used to be a closed system. Now that it’s opening up, the question is worth asking: who really gets to attend Fashion Week today?
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
Who Gets to Attend Fashion Week Now That the Guest List No Longer Applies
La Watch Party, founded by Elias Medini—known as @ly.as on Instagram—has become a phenomenon, widening access to Fashion Week while reframing how it is experienced. Often described as fashion’s own Robin Hood, Medini has built a format that offers open, real-time access to some of the season’s most sought-after runway shows, bypassing the traditional guest list.
During the Autumn/Winter 2026 women’s shows in Paris, Lyas’ vision scaled significantly. For one week, La Watch Party took over the Théâtre du Châtelet in its entirety, hosting a continuous programme of free events running parallel to the official schedule. From Saint Laurent and Acne Studios to Balenciaga and Chanel, livestreamed runways met live audiences—turning the venue into an open front row, accessible to anyone, with no ticket required.
In doing so, the front row—once defined by proximity, status and invitation—is taking on a different meaning. It is becoming something more diffuse and collective, defined as much by participation as by presence, and increasingly difficult for the industry to contain.
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
How Fashion Week Is Being Experienced Differently Beyond Invitations and Inside Access
In June 2025, Medini’s idea first took shape in a Parisian bar, where he hosted a watch party livestreaming Dior’s runway—the house’s first show under Jonathan Anderson. It was a moment charged with anticipation, yet access remained tightly controlled. Like many working within the fashion system—unless they were editors-in-chief or commanded vast digital audiences—Medini himself did not have a seat. The guest list, as ever, was a gatekeeping mechanism that reinforced familiar boundaries around who is permitted to attend fashion week.
From the outset, he intended to act as a community catalyst, creating a space for those who “couldn’t get into a show, but still wanted to feel part of the industry”.
Medini has spoken of how personal that impulse was. Growing up, he would retreat to his room to explore fashion, drawn to a world that felt distant and closed off. What emerged was not simply an event format but a reframing of access itself: no invitation-only lists, no hierarchy—just an open call for like-minded individuals to gather.
In the months since, he has cultivated an engaged and responsive community that is beginning to reconsider how runway shows are experienced and discussed beyond the confines of the official front row.
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
How La Watch Party Is Redefining Access to Fashion Week—and Who It Includes
Medini has built a close-knit team, including his brother, to oversee logistics, partnerships and programming. On Instagram, he announces venues and timings aligned with the fashion week calendar, attracting a next-generation audience eager to be part of it.
What distinguishes La Watch Party is not just access but participation. Lyas does not position himself at a remove; he remains at the centre of the room, offering spontaneous commentary alongside the audience. His off-the-cuff observations create an atmosphere that is both informal and critically engaged.
“Who rated the show five stars?” he asks, before handing the microphone to a fashion student ready to give their own verdict. In these moments, authority shifts—from the established critic to a collective voice—suggesting a broader redefinition of who is entitled to interpret fashion.
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
How Fashion Week Is Expanding Beyond the Runway into a Global Audience
What began as a local gathering has evolved into a recurring presence across fashion capitals, with audiences returning season after season. La Watch Party now operates across Paris, New York, London and Milan, each iteration expanding in scale and ambition.
This geographic spread reflects a wider transformation in how fashion month is consumed. The runway is no longer confined to its physical location; it travels—even digitally, socially and culturally—reaching audiences far beyond those in the room.
With each season gaining momentum, the production has raised the bar in both spirit and spectacle. Medini’s longer-term vision is more structural still: a parallel circuit in every major fashion city, running alongside the traditional calendar.
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
Why Fashion Watch Parties Are Changing the Industry Right Now
The momentum surrounding La Watch Party reflects a broader shift across the creative industries—towards transparency, access and collective experience. This movement has not gone unnoticed. Sponsors, brands, press, designers, artists and models are increasingly drawn into its orbit, recognising the cultural weight of a format that privileges engagement over exclusivity.
The events extend well beyond passive viewing. Guests encounter fashion trivia games, backstage insights, industry speakers, interactive competitions and live performances. There are giveaways—beauty products, accessories, fragrances—but these remain secondary to the atmosphere Medini is building.
What participants take away is less tangible yet more enduring: new connections, shared moments and a sense of belonging in an industry that has historically kept them at arm’s length.
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
The Front Row Has Changed: Is Exclusivity Still Fashion’s Ultimate Status Symbol?
A recent Monday marked the closing night of the season’s La Watch Party, culminating in a gospel performance of We Are Young. It drew the largest crowd to date, with surrounding streets thick with anticipation as audiences gathered for the final evening.
Inside, a large screen displayed an editorial image of Lyas in a sweeping blue coat, his signature red lip intact, alongside the words: “flipping fashion-world etiquette on its head”—a good summary of the project’s intent.
Following Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel livestream, the debut show of Uniform was projected. As the final looks appeared, the screen lifted to reveal live models for an impromptu runway staged by Betsey Johnson. The designer joined Elias Medini on stage to a wave of applause, florals and cheers. Both reflected on the symmetry of the moment, recalling how, a decade earlier, they had each slipped into fashion shows uninvited.
As Fashion Month drew to a close, the evening belonged not only to the luxury maison across the arrondissement, but to a different vision of fashion altogether, one shaped by access, community and cultural participation.
Brianna Maiurro
Master’s Student in Fashion Promotion, Communication & Media, Paris