The devastatingly beautiful drama of Matières Fécales is exactly what the hyper–high-gloss Paris Fashion Week needs. Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj’s vision of the world is one of sinister, post-post-capitalist dystopia: blood-red-palmed opera gloves, dollar-bill masks, post-op bandages, and Mr. Monopoly eveningwear evoke a band of supervillains poised to take over the world. Or perhaps these were undercover agents sent to disturb and disarm the status quo?

Whatever the underlying concept, Matières Fécales is a brand that certainly shakes up the model-casting landscape in Paris. Models, artists and aristocrats of different ages and body shapes – many with striking, vivid faces that show signs of a lived life – walked the show, dressed to the nines in corseted jackets, full skirts, and torn ball gowns. Some looked visibly uncomfortable, but in a pleasure-sparking, fetishistic kind of way, and a few ankles seemed nearly sprained; but beauty is pain, after all.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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