What is the brand Matières Fécales (yes, ‘fecal matter’) and why is it suddenly everywhere?

FastCompany: The brand name behind recent showstopping fashion moments isn’t quite as delicate as their romantic and otherworldly looks. When asked what an ethereal Zendaya was wearing for The Odyssey ‘s premiere in New York, her stylist, Law Roach , responded: “Fecal Matter.” Zendaya’s angelic strapless gown with feathered white wings was the work of Matières Fécales—yes, in English, Fecal Matter—the Paris-based, high-end fashion house founded in Montreal over a decade ago that’s, seemingly suddenly, everywhere. Why Matières Fécales is called . . .

that The design duo behind Matières Fécales, Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton, have aimed to subvert beauty with their own alien-like personal style, including dramatic white makeup, shaved heads and eyebrows, and skin boots made to look like realistic feet. Bhaskaran and Dalton started the brand as students at Collège LaSalle Montréal, going from selling designs on the secondhand shopping platform Depop to showcasing collections at Paris Fashion Week . The designers have said the name reflects their view of the fashion industry, a perspective they initially summed up with a more vulgar word.

“There’s no other word for it, but how can we say it in a glamorous way? So we’re like, ‘fecal matter’ is the scientific word for it,” Dalton recalled to Vogue last year, adding they translated it into French, which “sounds way more glamorous.” Bhaskaran told the Fashion Neurosis podcast in March that the name was also intended to “challenge the wasteful side of fashion.” A representative for Matières Fécales said the designers were not available for comment. Despite the visceral name, tastemakers from Lady Gaga to Kylie Jenner are embracing their designs.

“There is this beautiful tension in their work between the finesse and the decaying, and the strong and the soft,” the celebrity stylist Brad Goreski told The Associated Press. And after years of building a cult following, they were taken under the wing of Dover Street Market in 2024, after first meeting its president, Adrian Joffe, backstage at a Madonna show. The global retail and concept stores offer emerging brands development support, from production and distribution to sales.

Kristen Bateman, a longtime fashion and culture writer who has attended all three of the designers’ Paris Fashion Week shows, said their rise is driven by the industry’s desire to see something new. “If you’re looking at the high-fashion brands like Chanel and Dior, it all sort of starts to blend together,” she said. “And this feels like it’s in its own category. . . . You can’t replicate it.” From cult status to Paris Fashion Week Milan Tanedjikov, a Collège LaSalle Montréal design teacher, had a front-row seat to Dalton and Bhaskaran’s rise and says they have finally found the balance between their art and fashion.

“They have created this, like, very interesting organism together,” he said. The designers were invited onto the official calendar for Paris Fashion Week last year, debuting “The Other,” a collection they described as an ode to being fearless with identity. It featured a collaboration pairing their striking curved-heel design with Christian Louboutin’s signature red sole. “At their very core, what drives them is absolute freedom of expression, and they want to push the boundaries of what is human,” Tanedjikov said.

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Matières Fécales represents a significant shift in fashion branding by challenging norms and embracing authenticity, making it impactful and novel, while still being relevant to brand strategy professionals interested in innovative approaches.