SCREEN Time

DEREK C. BLASBERG talks to creator LYAS, whose "LA WATCH PARTY" events have become a festive force for DEMOCRACY during FASHION MONTH, transforming RUNWAY LIVESTREAMS into standing-room- only SOIREES and giving SUPERFANS a place to COMMUNE

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Maxim's is a Paris institution.

Founded in 1893 and famous for its gilded belle-epoque interiors, it's a place where artists, aristocrats, and the style swirl have shared dinners and danced under art-nouveau stained glass and mirrored panels since the dawn of café society. It is also part of Harper's Bazaar history: Richard Avedon famously photographed Audrey Hepburn at the second-floor bar in an embroidered knee-length Dior cocktail dress for the September 1959 issue. On this January afternoon, Maxim's is hosting something different, more modern. It's La Watch Party, a Fashion Month phenomenon orchestrated by 27-year-old French creator Elias Medini, more popularly known as Lyas.

The occasion is the Valentino couture show. I'm squeezed in with more than 500 fashion fans, shoulder to shoulder, clutching my phone, inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke, and watching a flat-screen TV showing the Valentino runway with the same intensity my father once reserved for basketball games when I lived back home in Missouri.

After the show, I try to find my host, who became social-media famous for his candid comedic videos. In my teens, I'd sometimes charm my way into a VIP area by telling a doorman, "I'm with the DJ." Today, I try a more contemporary variation: "I'm with Lyas." A bouncer looks at me, scans the crowd, and says, "So is everyone else." Right. I'm just happy to have gotten in when 400 other people were turned away because Maxim's was at capacity.

Finally, I spot Lyas leaning against a bar. He looks like peak-era Michael Jackson—if Michael Jackson had been dressed by Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent. He's wearing mirrored aviators and his trademark red lipstick. (More on that later.) There's a queue of people waiting to speak to him, asking for selfies, thanking him for creating a devoted Fashion Week congregation. He's calm, playful, and attentive. He looks so at home.