Entertainment & Culture | Desk By Bisam Fatima
PARIS — The name sounds like a provocation. The clothes look like they belong in another world.
Matières Fécales — French for “Fecal Matter” — has gone from an underground fashion experiment to one of celebrity culture’s most talked-about labels, with Zendaya, Kylie Jenner, Lady Gaga and Demi Moore among the stars embracing its deliberately strange and theatrical designs.
The sudden attention is not just about an outrageous name. It reflects a bigger shift on celebrity red carpets: stars increasingly want clothes that create a moment, tell a story and dominate social media rather than simply look expensive.
So, What Exactly Is Fecal Matter?
Matières Fécales was founded by designers Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran, who met while studying fashion in Montreal before developing their label into a Paris-based fashion house.
Their aesthetic deliberately mixes elegance with discomfort: feathers, distressed fabrics, exaggerated silhouettes, unusual footwear and designs that challenge conventional ideas of beauty.
Even the provocative name is intentional. The designers have described it partly as a critique of fashion’s wastefulness and excess.
Zendaya Helped Push It Into the Mainstream
One of the brand’s biggest moments came when Zendaya appeared at the New York premiere of The Odyssey in a dramatic white Matières Fécales gown with feathered wings.
The dress had reportedly been reserved for Zendaya for roughly two years after stylist Law Roach asked the designers to save it for her.
It transformed an avant-garde label into a global entertainment headline overnight.
Then Came Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner brought the brand to an even broader audience by wearing a structured blush-pink satin blazer with dramatic shoulders in a Dunkin’ television advertisement.
That crossover matters.
Matières Fécales was no longer confined to experimental runways or high-fashion circles. Its clothes were entering mainstream pop culture.
Lady Gaga has worn its custom creations for performances, while Demi Moore, Sarah Paulson and other celebrities have also appeared in the label’s designs.
Why Celebrities Want It
Celebrity fashion has become an attention economy.
A beautiful designer dress may generate photographs. A bizarre, instantly recognizable creation generates photographs, memes, debate, searches and millions of social-media impressions.
Matières Fécales delivers precisely that combination.
Its clothes can appear romantic and luxurious from a distance while revealing deliberately unsettling details up close — what stylist Brad Goreski described as a tension between refinement and decay.
From Depop to Paris Fashion Week
The rise is particularly striking because Dalton and Bhaskaran did not begin inside a traditional luxury-fashion empire.
They built an online following, sold early designs through Depop and developed a distinctive visual identity before reaching Paris Fashion Week. Support from influential retailer Dover Street Market later helped propel the label onto a larger international stage.
That outsider identity is now part of its appeal.
Why It Matters
Matières Fécales represents something bigger than fashion’s latest strange name.
Luxury fashion is increasingly competing for cultural attention, and celebrities need looks capable of surviving beyond a single red-carpet photograph.
Zendaya wearing enormous angelic wings or Kylie Jenner appearing in exaggerated tailoring accomplishes exactly that.
The irony may be the secret to the brand’s success: a fashion house with one of luxury’s least glamorous names has become one of Hollywood’s most glamorous new labels.