A brand name that raises eyebrows is now dressing some of the biggest names in entertainment. Matieres Fecales — French for Fecal Matter — is the Paris-based house behind Zendaya’s ethereal, feathered-wing gown at the New York premiere of The Odyssey, confirmed by her stylist Law Roach with characteristic bluntness when asked who made the look.
The label was founded over a decade ago in Montreal by design duo Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton, who met as students at Collège LaSalle Montreal and built the brand from Depop sales into a fixture on the Paris Fashion Week calendar. Their own aesthetic of shaved heads and brows, stark white makeup, boots sculpted to resemble bare feet mirrors the alien, uncanny quality that runs through their collections.
The name itself is deliberate provocation softened into elegance. Dalton has said there was no other word for how they viewed the fashion industry, so they reached for the “scientific” term and translated it into French, reasoning it would sound more glamorous. Bhaskaran has separately said the name was also meant to needle fashion’s wastefulness.
The client list reads like a red-carpet who’s who. Early champions Madonna and Lady Gaga backed the brand before its wider fame, Madonna brought the designers on tour to DJ in 2023, and they’ve built custom stage looks for Gaga, including at Coachella. At this year’s Grammys, Gaga wore a high-necked, feathered black gown from the label. Sarah Paulson, Kylie Jenner, Demi Moore and Gabbriette Bechtel have all followed, with Jenner even wearing a structured, shoulder-padded blazer from the brand in a Dunkin’ commercial — a mainstream crossover that amused those unfamiliar with the name.
Two collections in particular have cemented the label’s identity. The Other, its Paris Fashion Week debut on the official calendar, paired the brand’s signature curved heel with Christian Louboutin’s red sole in what the designers framed as an ode to fearless identity. The One Percent, shown this past March, sent models down the runway with red-painted opera gloves and eye masks fashioned from dollar bills — a pointed commentary on wealth and power that landed just as billionaires were taking front-row seats at rival shows.
Industry insiders point to timing as much as shock value. Fashion and culture writer Kristen Bateman has noted that against the sameness of major heritage houses, Matieres Fecales occupies a category entirely its own — one that resists imitation. Dover Street Market’s Adrian Joffe brought the label into the retailer’s fold in 2024 after meeting the pair backstage at a Madonna show, giving them production and distribution support that has clearly accelerated their reach.
Matieres Fecales’ rise is a reminder that shock-value branding, when backed by genuine craft and storytelling, can outrun even the most established maisons for cultural relevance — a lesson increasingly visible in India’s own D2C and homegrown luxury space, where labels are experimenting with bold names, unconventional silhouettes, and narrative-driven collections to cut through a crowded market. As Indian designers look to break out of the “safe couture” mould for global visibility, the brand’s trajectory — from Depop to Dover Street Market to red carpets worldwide — offers a case study in how audacity, not just craftsmanship, can become a growth strategy.
