Everyone's Invited to Lyas’ Paris Fashion Week Party

If the algorithm hasn’t served up a clip of Elias Medini your way by now, chances are you've been admirably offline or actively avoiding fashion’s most entertaining voice.

The style autodidact better known as Lyas has eschewed conventional journalism to forge a path in criticism, bringing an off-the-wall meld of humor, curiosity, cultural literacy and punk sensibility to online chatter. There’s an Ablohnian hustle to the way he’s infiltrated the highest echelons of the industry—on his terms, earning the respect of names like Rick Owens—amplified further by a kind of Four Pins-era irreverence.

Today, Lyas is a Fashion Week fixture, bringing levity to a self-serious industry while navigating the balance between honest critique, professional relationships and commercial influence. He speaks his mind, even if that means being declared persona non grata by a house. Ironically, this has only served to fuel his popularity. As corny as it sounds, Lyas’ love for fashion comes from a place of passion, and that passion radiates as a kind of fun that can’t help but draw people in.

One recent example: no invite to Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut? No worries. He’ll happily admit that, instead sending out an invite to a diOR (get it?) watch-along party to his 300,000+ followers. It’s the kind of self-deprecating wit that defines a new wave of critics—a very literal example of how the livestream is the new front row.

At MANIFESTO, a three-day festival presented by Kaleidoscope and GOAT at Espace Niemeyer during Paris Fashion Week, Lyas takes us on a tour of the space, showcasing items from Willy Chavarria, D’heygere and Thames available only in Paris and on GOAT. Catching him in between a packed schedule, we took the chance to get a temperature check on where he’s at currently. Jump into our conversation below.