4 March 2026 |
There are few brands who commit to a concept quite like Matières Fécales, the Paris based label by Fecal Matter – Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran. For AW26, titled The One Percent, they took on power – who has it, who doesn’t, who bleeds for it – and did so with their usual unnerving precision.
The opening bourgeois family tableau set the tone: vampiric capes, pleated skirts, hourglass blazers, prim tweeds and twinsets. One model wore a pearl ball gag with a cream déchirer tweed skirt suit, hems distressed, white face paint stark against a blood red lip. Alexis Stone, in crisp white poplin and a corseted tutu skirt, wore grotesque feline prosthetics with bombshell blonde hair. An uncanny fuchsia and black duo stomped out like the twins from The Shining, crinolines stiff with menace. It felt a little like the Surrealist Ball of 1972, but this wasn’t indulgent aristocracy – it was a dissection of it.
Dalton and Bhaskaran “Fecalised” Dior New Look codes with mille feuille skirts, built in hips and corseted waists, then slashed them apart. Opera length lamb leather ‘Guilt Gloves’ came with red palms – a neat wink to their collaboration with Christian Louboutin and the idea of blood on wealthy hands.
Money was everywhere. American dollar bills were sculpted into eye masks, blinding the wearer. One shaggy 3D knit was entirely knotted from cash, worn with tweedy black capris and prim satin heels. Sweatshirts read ‘Cult’ in intarsia or screen print, hoodie capes with kangaroo pockets clashed against razor tailoring in Prince of Wales wool. Matching bows exploded across electric pink and smoky grey tulle ball gowns, as if Cinderella had finally snapped. Dalton herself stepped out in architectural faux python and heelless skin shoes moulded to toes and all. Throughout, prosthetic cheekbones pushed faces into alien territory, perhaps a nod to surgical obsession.
Then came the immortals. Michèle Lamy strode out in a floor-length grey knit with staggering shoulders and furry sleeves; longevity-obsessed biohacker Bryan Johnson followed in the simplest look of all – skin tight grey knit, hench and oddly domineering. Daphne Guinness shimmered in tasselled silver, helped along by Hanan Besovic of @ideservecouture, her Bride-of-Frankenstein-beehive intact.
Soundtracked by EsDeeKid’s Century, the show closed with Debra Shaw in a look originally drawn for the pair’s graduate project – also titled The One Percent –, which asked them to speculatively design a look for the year 2026. The almighty silhouette was reminiscent of an Elizabethan queen. “This story of power comes to an end and as we have seen in history time after time, too much power can eclipse our humanity,” Fecal Matter penned in their show notes. “Perhaps that’s why we aren’t born gods.”
Power, here, wasn’t subtle. It was masked, mutilated and made grotesquely visible. Eat the rich.
Photography courtesy of Matières Fécales.
