Luxury’s center of gravity is shifting - from owning the moment to being part of it.

It started in Paris. When Lyas wasn’t invited to the Christian Dior Couture show, he posted: “if like me you’re not invited to the Dior show, come and let’s watch it together on a big screen in a bar in Paris !!!!!”

More than 300 people came. No guest list, no hierarchy, no velvet rope. A playful refusal became a cultural moment. He has since scaled it into La Watchparty, moving from London to Milan to Paris. CHANEL this week was at capacity. People came for the clothes and for the experience of being there together.

The shift is clear. Fashion’s value is moving from possession to participation. For decades, status was measured by the object, the seat, the private viewing. Now, the scarce thing is shared presence.

Gen Z is driving this change. They grew up in an economy of access, not ownership, streaming over collecting, connection over consumption. Their measure of prestige is not proximity to power, but participation in culture.
As Benjamin might put it, the aura has migrated from the product to the event. Meaning is made in public view, not behind a door.

Lyas did not dilute Dior; he reframed access. Community, attention, and collective interpretation created a rival form of cultural capital.

This raises a live question for brands built on distance. Bottega Veneta's social media silence once read as authority. In an age of collective spectatorship, does silence still confer mystique - or does it risk invisibility and lost momentum?

When exclusivity becomes reproducible, participation becomes the scarce good. That is what people now want to own.