How Lyas Built a Career by Staying Unapologetically Untamed

• 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.
  
  

Notable Quotes: 

• "I always feel the worst when I feel the most tamed."
  
• "There’s some truth in being fake — because it’s still your truth."
  
• "I couldn’t be normal. My normal is crazy."
  
• "Fashion should be accessible to everyone, not just the inner circle."
  
• "I'd rather get fired than stay somewhere that tames me."
  
• "I don't perform because I want to — I perform because I have to."
  
• "Excitement is rare in this industry now, and that’s exactly why we have to protect it."
  
• "Criticism is important because honesty in fashion is rare — and getting rarer."
  
• "When you have too many choices, it’s harder to focus on just one."
  
• "What feels contemporary now? Hatred. But the answer is still to fight it with love."