How Lyas Built a Career by Staying Unapologetically Untamed

What's Contemporary Now?

Describing Lyas as a "fashion narrator" rather than a critic or commentator feels curiously apt in a moment when fashion could use a little more imagination and a little less judgment. Storytelling, after all, is what he does best — with a kind of honesty that carries weight without ever feeling heavy. Unlike many of his peers, Lyas is as much a creator as he is a commentator, sculpting himself into a living performance while quietly building a world behind the scenes with two films already in the works. His energy moves through the industry like a weather system — sometimes wild, but never without purpose — electrifying the air it passes through. He learned early that the worst thing anyone could do was ask him to tame himself, and it is precisely this refusal that has shaped his path. Fired from every traditional job he attempted, Lyas carved out a future that runs on instinct, imagination, and just the right measure of delusion. In an industry that often rewards conformity, he is a reminder that sometimes it is the unruliest forces that end up remaking the landscape.

"I couldn’t be normal. My normal is crazy." - Lyas

Episode Highlights:

• Growing up in Rouen - Lyas reflects on his early years in a city steeped in history but devoid of contemporary culture — and how moving to Paris unlocked his sense of identity and creative belonging.

• The Power of Performance - How 11 years of drama school shaped Lyas’s relationship to fashion, storytelling, and self-expression — and why performance is an essential part of his daily life.

• Feeling the Most Tamed — and the Most Lost - A candid look at how being "tamed" or asked to tone down his personality deeply affected Lyas’s sense of self-worth — and why authenticity became non-negotiable.

• Building a Career Without a Blueprint: - Lyas shares how unconventional paths, personal resilience, and creative hunger shaped a career that defies traditional expectations — and why doing things his own way became the only option.

• Living Rent-Free in Paris (and Building a Dream) - The surreal stretch of living rent-free during COVID — and how it gave Lyas the time and space to develop the projects that would launch his digital career.

• Making Fashion Critique Accessible - Why Lyas believes fashion commentary should be democratized — speaking to real people, not just insiders — and how he uses humor and storytelling to break down barriers.

• Choosing Integrity Over Industry Pressure - The moment Lyas chose honesty over maintaining industry relationships, after attending a disappointing show and refusing to stay silent.

• The Future of Fashion (and the Role of Excitement) - How Lyas manages to stay genuinely excited about fashion, especially by championing young designers, despite the industry's increasingly commercial pressures.

• Writing Stories, Not Just Reviews - Lyas shares his passion for screenwriting, the difference between writing scripts versus essays, and the films he hopes will challenge and change culture.

• What’s Contemporary Now? Hatred — and Hope - Lyas’s unexpectedly profound answer to the show's namesake question — that hatred feels contemporary today, but so does the community-building needed to fight it.

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