Matières Fécales: From Instagram Outsiders

Photography SharamSaadat, styling Jill GattegnoFashion / The Autumn 2026 IssueHow fashion outsiders Matières Fécales’ seductive style is reaching new heights. Here, designers Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran reflect on their journey from misfit outsiders to fashion-world darlingsShareLink copied ✔️August 27, 2026FashionThe Autumn 2026 IssueAugust 27, 2026Text Elliot Hoste Photography Shahram Saadat Styling Jill Gattegno Matières Fécales - The Autumn 2026 Issue When a pair of bare, mutant feet emerge on a runway - supported by ten-inch spears of flesh bursting from their heels - people tend to sit up and pay attention. That’s what happened at Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran’s first-ever catwalk show, Non-Human, staged in October 2018 at the Mandrake Hotel in London. Known jointly as Matières Fécales, the designers had until then been posting images of their alienoid, DIY garments to Instagram, augmenting their strangeness with SFX and image-editing. In otherworldly regalia, Dalton was often seen with flesh-toned stilts extending from her heels, her feet digitally distorted to resemble a pair of en-pointe skin shoes. On the catwalk, the pair actualised the illusion they’d been teasing for years. Made from silicone and moulded to Dalton’s feet, the first physical version of the shoes shifted their online fantasy into material reality. The heels - thigh-high streaks of alien eroticism - acted as an entryway into the world of Matières Fécales. The Canadian duo, who are partners in both fashion and life, had been purveyors of extreme clubwear since 2015, selling mid-priced designs on an uber-popular Depop page - but the moment exposed Dalton and Bhaskaran to an even broader audience. Years later, when I meet Dalton and Bhaskaran in person, there are no feats of anatomical impossibility. The sense of immediate, physical discomfort that dominated those early shows has melted into something more luxury-minded, even as it retains its transgressive edge. Though Dalton’s look is disarmingly businesslike - a shin-length wool dress in a mid-grey twill - her signature shaved head, full-coverage white make-up and soaring, curved heels are enough to offset any assumptions of normalcy. Bhaskaran is dressed, more casually, in cargo shorts, a camouflage cut-off tee and leather platform boots. Today, he’s forgone his usual dramatic eye make-up for arching black sunglasses. His own shaved head is covered by a baseball cap that reads PAINSLUT. Worn by Billy, Sigrid de l’Epine and Didier VinsonPhotography SharamSaadat, styling Jill Gattegno The time is 11am and we’re in Rose Bakery, a sparsely decorated café on the ground floor of Dover Street Market Paris, where their studio has been based since early 2025. It’s the final day of the A/W26 couture season, and the temperature outside is searingly hot. Dalton excuses herself to procure a peppermint tea, and returns on the phone, her brow pinched in concentration. “Oui… oui…. oui…,” she repeats, hurriedly. “I’m so sorry,” she says when the call finishes. “When we did our first show, Law Roach sent Steven a message about the wedding dress I wore at the end.” The pair have been in and out of fittings with Zendaya since March 2025, when Roach decided to use the look as the final, showstopping gown for The Odyssey press tour. Dalton was on the phone arranging shipping to New York, the last hurdle in an arduous 18-month journey - fitting, given the film’s subject matter. Five days after our conversation in Rose Bakery, Zendaya arrives at the premiere in a pleated white gown sprouting floor-length angel wings - the final look from their A/W25 show. It’s a major fashion moment that further confirms their status as a brand to be reckoned with. Before this, the pair had already collaborated with Demi Moore, Chappell Roan and Lady Gaga. They also designed Gabbriette’s “distorted Cinderella” dress for her wedding to The 1975 frontman Matty Healy in July - their first foray into bridal wear. “Anything custom goes through us,” says Bhaskaran. “We start by asking, ‘Would this person protect us on the street if we were being harassed?’” Our meeting also takes place the day after Kylie Jenner’s Dunkin’ ad drops. In the glossy commercial, Jenner introduces a line of “King Kylie” beverages while wearing a satin pink skirt suit from Matières Fécales S/S26. “She bought that,” Dalton responds offhandedly. “I didn’t send that.” I mention that the pairing did seem out of step with their usual custom clients. “No, she purchased it,” Dalton reconfirms. “Also, you can see she’s removed the shoulder pads. She took it and remade it, actually-” “Anything custom goes through us. We start by asking, ‘Would this person protect us on the street if we were being harassed?’” - Steven Raj Bhaskaran “Which I love!” Bhaskaran interjects, quickly. “Yeah, it’s chill,” claims Dalton in return. “What’s amazing is that we’re a real brand, selling luxury clothes that are beautiful and desirable,” says Bhaskaran, diplomatically. “People can embody it the way they want to embody it.” Alongside outfitting global stars, another defining moment was the pair’s A/W26 show, their third on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule. Titled The One Percent, the collection was an incisive send-up of the filthy rich, designed to spark conversation about wealth inequality. Featuring menacing businessmen and women with blood on their hands (which were actually the crimson palms of leather gloves), A/W26 was an exploration of the one per cent’s endless quest for immortality. Dior’s New Look silhouette was “fecalised” with jutting shoulders and frayed hems; cadaverous socialites were blinded by money masks or had their wrists bound with pearls; Alexis Stone transformed into “Catwoman” Jocelyn Wildenstein to parody an obsession with plastic surgery, while “longevity advocate” Bryan Johnson appeared in the final section of the show, his presence symbolising the pernicious hunt for eternal youth. Alongside the satirical overtones, the show demonstrated Dalton and Bhaskaran’s skills as genuine couturiers who know how to advance their vision beyond the “outsider” aesthetic that has come to define them. Though Matières Fécales are technically an emerging brand, for the last ten years they have been the poster children for subversive beauty and outsider fashion. The One Percent, with its vast, shaggy greatcoats and couture-grade gowns, was a declaration that Dalton and Bhaskaran’s provocative vision - and what they represent as people - had outgrown the confines of online notoriety, ready for a much grander stage. Still, the collection’s commentary on extreme wealth inequality had its detractors - mostly from those who took exception to the idea that fashion designers, who operate within a largely elitist industry, should have the temerity to make such a critique. Dalton manoeuvres the potential hypocrisies by drawing a parallel to the art world. “It relates back to, ‘Do you see fashion as art?’ In art you can make a statement like that, but in fashion it’s like, ‘Oh, you can’t do that,’” she says, reminding us that “a painting is worth more than a dress. Art is a business, too.” Worn by Konrad BauerPhotography SharamSaadat, styling Jill GattegnoWorn by Sigrid de l’EpinePhotography SharamSaadat, styling Jill Gattegno Actor Sarah Paulson drew a similar parallel. When the 2026 Met Gala proposed that “Fashion Is Art”, Paulson responded with a shredded ball gown and dollar bill mask from The One Percent collection. Her thinly veiled commentary on the Gala’s billionaire backers didn’t go unnoticed, but many saw an irony in the stunt - she was attending the same event they were, after all. “I understood that, I guess,” concedes Dalton, in response to the criticism. “To clarify, she didn’t buy the dress; we loaned that - there were a lot of articles like, ‘She spent $100k on her seat!” which, ultimately, was not true. “The only way to deconstruct and reconstruct dynamics is from within,” says Bhaskaran. So was the dress taking direct aim at Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s involvement in the Gala? “Of course!” they say in unison. “But it goes beyond the Met Gala,” says Bhaskaran. “It’s how we see life.” The seed that Matières Fécales sprang from was planted 12 years ago, when Dalton and Bhaskaran met at LaSalle College in Montreal. Bhaskaran, a lower-income student in combat boots and a Beth Ditto T-shirt, encountered Dalton for the first time in a fashion illustration class. “I came in late and saw Hannah sandwiched between two other girls. You were wearing a pussy-bow blouse” - he says, turning towards her - “and you had a below-the-knee pleated skirt. And Tory Burch flats.” Bhaskaran’s curiosity was piqued; Dalton, with her long, mousy hair, seemed pris