For the premiere of the movie The Odyssey in New York, Zendaya chose an outfit from a brand with the scandalous name Matieres Fecales (literally translating to "Feces").
Today, it is a relatively young but incredibly popular fashion house experiencing its finest hour, writes The Salon.
The fashion brand with the telling name Matières Fécales has traveled the path from an intentionally provocative marginal project to stepping onto red carpets as a wardrobe choice for the world's top celebrities: Zendaya, Lady Gaga, Demi Moore, and Kylie Jenner are already strutting around in their pieces.
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And yes, the name was chosen quite deliberately.
Canadian designers Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran founded the brand after meeting while studying in Montreal. Disillusioned with an industry they viewed as wasteful, closed-off, and obsessed with unbridled consumption, the founders wanted a name that reflected their critique of the system.
They settled on Matières Fécales. Initially, the designers gained fame for a frightening and surreal aesthetic: shaved eyebrows, extreme makeup, alien silhouettes, and their infamous "skin heels"—footwear that creates the illusion that a human foot has literally merged with a stiletto.
Now, the project has firmly entrenched itself in the mainstream:
Zendaya appeared in a giant white creation with wings at the premiere of The Odyssey with the support of her permanent stylist, Law Roach.
Lady Gaga chose the brand's designs for the Grammy Awards.
Demi Moore sparkled in a Matières Fécales outfit at the Cannes Film Festival.
Kylie Jenner even appeared in the brand's items for a Dunkin' advertising campaign.
Such a rise gives rise to an amusing irony for a project created as a critique of fashion excesses: Matières Fécales itself has become part of the luxury world. Today, individual pieces by the brand sell in luxury stores for hundreds and even over $1,000, and the creators themselves have migrated from modest online shops to the world's main runways.
However, therein lies the essence of the system.
The fashion world has a rich history of turning any provocation, rebellion, and even criticism of the industry itself into a desired and very expensive commodity. The Matières Fécales project challenged the system, accusing it of redundancy and waste.
The industry responded to this in the only way it knows how—by making "Feces" ultra-fashionable.
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