In the gilded salons of Hôtel Le Marois, a different kind of beauty took shape. Shadows moved against mirrored walls, elongated figures stepping forward with a precision that felt both ancient and alien. It was here, in this fractured reverie of the 19th century, that Matières Fécales unveiled “The Other”, a collection that blurred the boundaries between fashion, identity, and something less definable, something beyond the human.
Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran have never been interested in fitting within the established order. Their work exists at the margins, where distortion becomes refinement and the grotesque turns aspirational. If the Parisian fashion system has long prided itself on its own form of selectivity, “The Other” felt like a subversive infiltration, an elegant, spectral rebellion against conventional notions of dress and desirability.
The show opened with sculptural black tailoring, strong shoulders, architectural silhouettes, sleeves elongated and zippered for added articulation. These were garments with a language of their own, communicating through structure and restraint. The collection’s knitwear, raw-edged and spectral, carried the texture of something unearthed, an artifact of the body rather than a covering for it. Wool bouclé suits, frayed but meticulously controlled, spoke to an aesthetic of decay, as though they had survived some unknown catastrophe.
Accessories served as extensions of the body rather than mere adornments. A handbag with a sharply curved topline echoed the angularity of the tailoring, while platform shoes created in collaboration with Christian Louboutin transformed feet into sculptural relics. These were not shoes designed for walking but for existing, heightened, otherworldly, almost ceremonial.
Eveningwear took a more surreal turn. Dresses with welt-like slashes across the chest suggested wounds, openings into something deeper. One gown, wrapped like a mummy in unraveling strips of fabric, evoked a body in the midst of transformation, half-restrained, half-emerging. Dalton herself closed the show in a winged spirit wedding dress, an apparition that felt less like a finale and more like a departure into another realm.
Throughout the show, the models, wearing the brand’s signature facial prosthetics and unsettling contact lenses, became figures of transmutation, embodying a vision of beauty that exists beyond the immediate present. The casting, diverse and deliberate, reflected a community of misfits and visionaries, an audience as much as a statement. “A lot of people from the cast are exactly the same as us,” Bhaskaran noted. “We’re a small community, but there are many of us who are interested in this post-human aesthetic.”
With “The Other”, Matières Fécales presented something more than a debut collection. It was a manifesto, a challenge to the industry’s established order. If fashion is a system built on aspiration, then Dalton and Bhaskaran are offering an alternative, a vision where alienation becomes identity, where the grotesque is beautiful, and where the other is no longer on the periphery but at the center of it all.
“This collection is about being fearless in your identity. It’s about walking into a room with your head held high, even if nobody wants you there”
ABOUT Matières Fécales
Matières Fécales is a Parisian label founded by Hannah Rose and Steven Raj, embodying refined glamour and extreme individuality. Born from their 2014 meeting in Montreal, they have spent a decade pioneering a post-human aesthetic and fostering a fearless community. Their bold approach challenges luxury norms while valuing craftsmanship.
Photos: Courtesy of Matières Fécales
www.matieresfecales.com
@matieresfecales
Highlights from the Collection
