FASHION ANARCHY IN JAPAN: AN INTERVIEW WITH FECAL MATTER
Fecal Matter knows how to command a presence. Through their towering proportions, visceral makeup, and stark style, Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran, often look as though they’ve stepped straight off the hatch of a mothership from a cosmos, a million miles away—and maybe they have.
While their look is far from conventional, it’s the way they feel most themselves. Through their unique style, they hope to inspire those who also feel constrained by the restrictive standards of society to take up their own stride in unapologetic expression, and thus, they created their eponymous brand.
Fecal Matter connects fashion, film, politics and performance in hopes of inciting an uncensored world, and while we live in an increasingly tolerant society in the Western world, Fecal Matter finds there's still a large necessity to "provoking society," and thus these are the words they live by.
Having first met during their time in fashion school in Montreal, Canada, the two have come a long way; garnering a following of upwards of 700,000 and a résumé of star-studded connections. Ahead of the otherworldly duo’s touchdown in Tokyo, the GATA team had the chance to hear about what they look forward to most for their trip, their influences and what inspires them about Japan.
GATA: You are shortly travelling to Japan. What is your general perception of the country, and what do you expect to find on your arrival? What do you look forward to seeing?
Fecal Matter: This is our first trip to Japan! Our perception of Japan is that it is aesthetically and culturally advanced with the usage of technology and modernism. We’re looking forward to seeing the Harajuku district in Tokyo and hopefully seeing some amazing individuality that is out of this world!
Hannah and Steven at the Rick Owens FW24 in Paris
GATA: Could you delve into what facets of Japan or Japanese culture resonate with you, or may have served as a wellspring of inspiration for your work?
Fecal Matter: We are really inspired by Japanese fashion and culture. Steven grew up being obsessed with manga and this was a starting point for their drawing abilities. Steven would draw manga characters in full looks which spawned their imagination and allowed their desire to design clothing to flourish. Today, we are completely obsessed with Butoh, the traditional Japanese dance, especially the work of Kazuo Ohno. It is pure magic.
GATA: Are there any Japanese designers or creators who have left a mark on your artistic journey, and how have their works influenced your own creative vision?
Fecal Matter: Rei Kawakubo is the ultimate creator of avant-garde beauty. Her work has transformed our minds and changed our perspective on the possibilities of fashion and art. Most importantly, her business structure is what fascinates us deeply and motivates us to know there are possibilities to be commercially successful while maintaining your artistic integrity.
GATA: We saw your collaborative boot with Berlin-based brand Trippen, which is reminiscent to us, of the traditional Japanese geta. Was this an influence apart of your inceptive process?
Fecal Matter: Yes of course! Trippen has been making this style of sole for decades as a homage to the traditional Japanese geta. It was so fun to recontextualize it with our vision.
Fecal Matter x Trippen
GATA: Many of the Fecal Matter designs are inspired by life forms, organic elements, humans and human anatomy, recreating human skin, mutated human limbs, etc. Have you ever produced or had in mind to produce items that are inspired by the internal parts of the human body (muscles, organs...)?
Fecal Matter: One of our favourite creations we’ve done is the skin shoes. It has opened up the possibility to redefine what fashion looks like. Going beyond clothing and textiles, the skin shoes create a new form. We are drawn by the anatomy of everything, and think this fascination will continue to develop through new art and fashion pieces.
“Rei Kawakubo is the ultimate creator of avant-garde beauty. Her work has transformed our minds and changed our perspective on the possibilities of fashion and art.”
Hannah and Steven at the Rick Owens SS24 in Paris
GATA: We have found you on many Instagram accounts attending the latest Fall/Winter shows, could you please tell us about the latest collections? Was there anything that excited you or would like to share about the recent movements?
Fecal Matter: We always enjoy going to the Rick Owens show each season in Paris. Sometimes we feel like if the Rick show didn’t exist there wouldn’t be many other luxury brands that would offer a space for people like us to be ourselves. We think the biggest movement in fashion right now is quiet luxury, everything is muted and tamed. Aesthetically it is interesting, as minimalism is beautiful, although this trend works hand in hand with censorship. This type of trend can limit expression and so we hope people don’t lose their voices within all this whispering...
GATA: You seem very much ready for any apocalyptic situation, in a hypothetical world, in which suddenly there were no clothes, no fabric factories; what elements do you think you would use to dress yourselves?
Fecal Matter: We take a lot of inspiration from nature, from plants and flowers. We would definitely gravitate towards these natural elements that have a lot of texture and colour. In a hypothetical world, we think it would be really beautiful to create with mud or water.
GATA: Imagine that an alien spacecraft appears on Earth and you have the chance to be the first to meet them; what look would you wear?
Fecal Matter: Definitely the skin boots. But like any meeting we have, we don’t try to overthink how or what we look like, instead, we go with the flow of how we feel in the moment.
GATA: Are there any specific makeup styles or fashion statements that you wouldn’t revisit due to the challenges they presented or the consequences they may have had?
Fecal Matter: For me (Hannah), I must say that eye contacts are no longer something I love wearing. I used to wear the large sclera eye contacts all the time, even during the daytime, but as time goes on I’ve found they have really reduced my vision and are quite painful. I wear them from time to time for special occasions as I really love how they look, but not as often as before. For me (Steven), there isn’t anything I wouldn’t revisit. Everything we’ve done in the past has been so much fun, why would I stay away from it?!
GATA: Over the last seven years, you have solidified your style, and worked with many of the most important and influential designers in the world. Now that you are much more globally recognised, how do you feel about the perception of you? Has acceptance from the outside world changed?
Fecal Matter: Our work has always been polarizing since the start. This love-hate relationship to who we are and what we do continues to persist even today. The more we get bigger, the more the hate gets bigger. At the end of the day when we go into a grocery store looking the way we do, nobody cares or knows about who we have worked with or our Instagram followers, strangers will still stare, point and laugh.
GATA: We would love to talk about cinema; we think cinema can be an important source of inspiration for many artists. What does cinema mean to you? What are your favourite movies?
Fecal Matter: The first Matrix movie really inspired us to think critically about the world and reality. Not only was it hyper-stylized but it also had a story that exposed truths and forced the audience to dig deeper into the true meaning of life. Once we watched that film, our minds completely changed and even was a huge catalyst to shave our heads 10 years ago.
We always hope to have this balance in our work; beautiful yet vulnerable imagery that forces the viewer to ask questions and think deeper about the structures of reality. As creators, our dream is to create movies and use our 360-degree approach to creating through each aspect of filmmaking; costumes, storytelling, makeup, imagery and music. All aspects of FECAL MATTER can be highlighted through film so we are sure one day we will make it happen!
FECAL MATTER PARTY FLYER, TOKYO OCTOBER 28TH