The Pain Of beauty. Matières Fécales SS26

October 1, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Beauty is pain. But this pain is also an unstoppable force. The most heart-wrenching show of the season is now behind us. Matières Fécales’s Steven Raj Bhaskaran said of his partner, Hannah Rose Dalton: “Watching her walk out into the world every day, receiving such judgmental reactions toward her expression, makes me feel sad sometimes about the intolerance of the world around us. It sends a message that being different from the norm isn’t valued in this society – it’s usually degraded. Regardless, she keeps walking through the laughter, the pointing, the stares, and often, the aggression.”

Being different from the norm has always been fashion’s prerogative, especially for designers like Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and Rick Owens. The duo behind Matières Fécales aim to continue that legacy by challenging conventional beauty standards: not only with their looks, but the multi-generational, diverse characters they cast in their shows. They unveiled their remarkable Spring–Summer 2026 collection at Place Vendôme – where else, if not at the very epitome of Parisian vanity? – a lineup filled with frayed tweeds à la Chanel, strong-shouldered riffs on Dior’s Bar jacket, and couture-inflected, corseted gowns that, from one angle, objectify the wearer to extremes, and from another, become a bulletproof shelter, an armor of sorts.

Bhaskaran and Dalton draw on fashion history directly, but with a fierce bravado. Their message is clear: in an industry where everything is expected to be commercial and sanitized, charging head-on into radical beauty is nothing less than an act of rebellion.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Porterville. Rick Owens AW24

March 1, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Rick Owens‘ autumn-winter 2024 fashion show was womenswear continuation of the “Porterville” collection that the designer presented back in January. “Porterville” 2.0., shown again at the Place du Palais Bourbon location, was equally moving and breath-taking as the menswear version. “When I’m talking about Porterville” – his California hometown, whose name appeared in an Art Deco font marching across capes – “I’m talking about oppression and intolerance, and that’s a fact of life that’s never going to go away,” he said. “Part of my role in life is to counterbalance that with this cheerful perversity.” This Owens season seems to be one of starkest examples in fashion history where a designer is processing childhood trauma in such a powerful way. Hussein Chalayan and Demna did so too, but in response to being refugees of war-torn countries. “It’s not easy for a lot of designers to be so autobiographical,” said Owens. As one of Paris’s last independent designers standing, he has fewer voices in his ear and pure independence to do as he pleases. This was a collection through which Owens takes hold of his demons, in which his gothic instincts duked it out with his inclination for goddess-y silhouettes. Batwing shoulders scraped the earlobes, puffer vests swaddled torsos like protective shells, and leather-and-down boots that riffed on the inflatable rubber ones he put on his men’s runway evoked space costumes, as if his models might’ve just returned from a walk on the moon. The deep pink dress worn by Matières Fécales’s Hannah Rose Dalton looked like it had sprouted wings in back. Incredible.