Now, shifting gears in a rather aggressive way, we arrive at my favorite brand of the moment: Matières Fécales. I’ve been following the creative duo behind the brand for the better part of a decade. I first discovered Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran after seeing Rick Owens mention their work in a video, and I’ve been captivated ever since.
Their work is intoxicating. Severe, brutal, unrelenting, yet somehow delicate, ghostly, and deeply feminine. Most recently, the duo designed the dresses Gabbriette wore to her wedding to Matty Healy.
Now, I’m not blind to the criticism they’ve received for being overly referential of other designers’ work. But I see them as a sort of foil to what Demna offers at Gucci, and previously at Balenciaga. Where Demna traffics in perverse reproduction, Matières Fécales offers us twisted reflections of what came before.
There is a difference between reproducing an image and distorting it until it becomes something altogether unsettling. Matières Fécales operates in that latter space, taking familiar codes and pushing them somewhere darker, stranger, and far more confrontational.
And frankly, I’m not seeing anyone else making garments that make me feel the way theirs do.
That might sound hyperbolic, but it’s mostly true. There is something genuinely visceral about their work, something that goes beyond the clothes themselves and into the realm of feeling.
I think we’ve been far too quick to judge two creatives who have finally been given a proper platform for their vision.
Let them develop. Let them figure out what this brand is going to be. Give them the time and space to become fluent in their own language. Not every designer arrives fully formed, and not every new voice needs to prove its originality by abandoning the references that shaped it. I, for one, am interested in seeing what happens next.
