A LETTER FROM LYAS.
This week, Paris fashion enfant terrible Lyas kicked off his LA Watch Party tour in Marseille, bringing his iconic fashion viewing experience to the city with watch parties for Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent.
Joining Lyas at every stop of the tour is the Perfect LA Watch Zine, the latest edition of the Perfect Zine series, guest edited by Lyas himself alongside his arch nemesis (and alter ego), Super Frenchman. The zine features interviews, games, guides, and artwork by Antoine Conde.
Read Lyas’s cover letter, where he shares the story behind LA Watch Party and the inspiration for taking it on tour.
One year ago, I wasn't invited to the
Dior show.
was furious
Not because I wanted to be seen at the coolest fashion show of the year (even
though, obviously, I kind of did) but
because I genuinely thought I was about to witness a moment in fashion history.
The kind people reference years later:
Galliano's first Dior collection, Demna's last Balenciaga show, or one of Nicolas Ghesquière's good Louis Vuitton collections. Which is rare.
But I wasn't invited.
So I thought of something.
I brought a TV to a bar on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, one of the best streets in Paris, filled with bars, Turkish food, rich people, broke people and occasional crackheads, and decided to screen the Dior show for anyone who wanted to come see it as much as I did.
To my surprise, more than 300 people
showed up.
They filled the street with an energy
I didn't even know a Friday at 2pm could hold.
That day, La Watch Party was born.
A concept so obvious no one had thought of it before: screening fashion shows in public, for anyone who gives a fuck.
One year later, we've taken this idea to Paris, New York, London, Milan and Rome. From theatres to shitty bars to public streets, the concept proved something important: it had a utility.
It offered a sense of community to a generation that often feels left out of fashion. A generation that wants to belong to the dream but doesn't know where to start.
We kicked the door open and forced the industry to look at us. As I call them,
'Les Watch Parters'
The outcasts.
The tasteful and the tasteless.
The non-nepo babies.
The queers and the str8s.
The cheap bitches who came for a free drink and stayed for the show.
The kids lying about their age just to feel
something.
The families who had never sat together to watch a fashion show.
My brother and my parents, who forced me to watch football my entire childhood (and who I now force to watch fashion
with me
All these people seem completely different from one another, yet they always have one thing in common:
they live in big cities.
But what about everyone else?
The people in the suburbs.
In the countryside.
In the mountains, by the sea, in villages.
The people who can't, or simply don't want to, travel to Paris for Fashion Week.
Well.
We'll travel to them.
La Watch Party GOES ON TOUR...
This issue of PERFECT magazine has been guest edited by me and my
nemesis.. SUPERFRENCHMAN