1 October 2025 |
The avant-garde duo finds beauty in the ugly.
In a sunny room of a historic building on Place Vendôme on the second day of Paris Fashion Week, Matières Fécales brought the industry inside their wildly shapeshifting world. Complete with angelic tulle gowns, heavy metal music, and some of the most unconventional models Paris has ever seen, it was a major dose of fashion’s finest freakiness without compromise. The brand, founded by Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran, has always stood for originality and provocation through visually strong, often unsettling imagery since they began posting their work on Instagram and DJing together a decade ago. Spring 2026 was the duo’s second ever collection presented at fashion week, but if you follow a certain crowd you’ve probably seen their work before; whether it’s the surreal skin-covered stiletto heels or the extreme, pointed shouldered blazers.
“I think it’s about breaking down barriers and at the same time carrying the torch,” says Dalton from the label’s Paris atelier, a few weeks before the show. “The values are freedom of expression and using our designs, our visuals, and our aesthetic to empower people to be bolder and more fearless in who they are in whatever context that is. Whether it’s wearing an elaborate piece with full makeup and shoes, or putting on a our uncensored hoodie, it symbolizes everything we’re trying to say: be yourself, honest and uncensored.”
Matières Fécales’s spring 2026 show together a slew of models of all different ages, races, shapes and sizes, including a cast of characters from their inner circle and first-time runway model Nikki Lilly, an advocate with a following who first wore the brand earlier this year at Cannes. The theme of the show? A conversation of couture inspired, ultra-feminine pink suits and gowns with McQueen references combined with the punkish t-shirts and suits the brand is so known for. All in all, a tribute to Hannah.
“For us, it’s less about a story, it’s more a reality,” adds Bhaskaran. “We’re trying to show that these are our friends, people that we hang out with every day, that we’re inspired by them. It’s also us. We see ourselves in them. It’s definitely confrontational in Paris.” He mentions being inspired by the unconventional model choices of early Jean Paul Gaultier and Margiela. “Beauty exists in everything for us and everyone. It wouldn’t be the beauty that we would want to see if those people weren’t part of the show.”
The duo also says the main inspiration of the collection is the rose, as inspired by Dalton’s middle name. “I think when you think of Matières Fécales, you think of shit. Obviously it’s something that is maybe gross or disgusting, but for us, when we think of roses, we think of something that’s so beautiful but then at the end of the day, it’s going to die,” adds Bhaskaran. “It’s also going to become grotesque so it’s actually about channeling that cycle. That’s really the embodiment of this next collection.”
“It’s a love letter to Hannah and the beauty that she embodies along with the fearless attitude that she brings into the world,” adds Bhaskaran. “When we met each other more than 12 years ago, the design process was always sketching. Hannah injects her energy and her life into them, taking it to the next level. 12 years ago, she was the only person that believed in me. So it felt really authentic to present that.” The label’s first collection presented last season in Paris was called The Other, and centered all around the brand’s community, the challenges they face in their freedom of expression, and empowerment.
At 14 Dalton was inspired to make clothes when she realized the working conditions of labor workers when the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed in 2013. “I taught myself how to sew and drape as a protest against the non-glamorous side of fashion,” she says. Bhaskaran’s entry into style comes from manga, which he grew up drawing. “I stopped drawing swords and I started drawing heels,” he says. “ It was a whole transition of my interest, but it was true of people who were using clothing as armor to protect themselves.”
Dalton and Bhaskaran have unconventional ways of working together. At an event during NYFW at Dover Street Market, Dalton wore a dramatic silhouetted suit from the label’s first collection, as Bhaskaran hovered around her on the ground cutting the bottom of the skirt and distressing it by hand to get the signature look. It was a nod to the distressed jeans the two were selling on Depop, homemade in their kitchen in the early days. Today, they are a part of the brand development division of Dover Street Market, with front row favorites like FKA Twiggs and Chappel Roan.
Makeup is also a huge part of the brand–white painted faces, black streaked eyes, and sometimes the occasional totally white or black contact lenses for a surreal effect, usually with a shaved head. It’s a look Dalton adopted years ago, that she wears every single day. The aesthetic has become so associated with the brand that it’s become a point of discussion with models and agencies in Paris, according to the designers. Rose also typically walks in her own runway shows, debuting a few looks per season. “Makeup is a real statement,” Bhaskaran adds. “It’s part of who we are, it’s the DNA, the identity of our brand, our community. It’s always going to be there and we’re having fun with it. Our take on a fashion show is much more of telling a story rather than presenting a generic version of the clothes.”
Dalton is a collector of vintage Alexander McQueen and Rick Owens, among other things, and always wears her own designs. The spring 2026 collection, in fact, was an example of her creating what she feels are missing from her wardrobe, like featherweight tulle jackets and couture-like Swan Lake inspired gowns. This is alongside all the more wearable t-shirts and hoodies with slogans including “never conform” and “uncensored”. According to Dalton and Bhaskaran, the Madame H. Suit, a style replete with shoulder pads, a nipped waist and big lapel, has become a bestseller in their retailer partners.
“We’re always focusing on the positives, but obviously there’s negatives that come like laughing, stares,” adds Bhaskaran. “We’re in Paris which is a very conservative place in reality outside of fashion week. So it does get dangerous sometimes. We have each other so we can hold hands and get through it. Whereas a lot of our friends, they don’t have somebody to lean on in those moments. A lot of people who follow us and support us, they have no one really. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s rewarding to be able to be yourself and to live your authentic truth no matter what.” For Matières Fécales, self-expression and confrontation go hand in hand–a rare provocation in a fashion industry dominated by all things commercial.
