Before Steven Raj Bhaskaran was showing clothes at Paris Fashion Week, he was around 11 years old, sketching couture from the edge of a mattress he shared with his mother and sister. On Monday, 28 September, the Matières Fécales designer brought that history to Place de la République for the label's Spring 2027 collection, The Ninety-Nine Percent.
The 99-look show put class, access and Bhaskaran's family history at its centre, with 99 models of colour walking through the Paris square. His mother Grace, sister Shandeal and niece also joined the cast, bringing the people who lived through those early years with him directly into the world he later built through fashion.
From One Mattress to the Drawing Board
Bhaskaran has said he was around 11 when drawing became an escape. While his mother prepared to clean houses and his teenage sister went to work after school, he would sketch from a corner of the mattress they shared. He described himself as watching what was happening around him while remaining absorbed in his own imagined world, a contrast that later became central to the collection.
Born in Guyana and raised partly in Montreal, Bhaskaran met Hannah Rose Dalton while studying fashion at LaSalle College in 2014. The pair built the visual universe that became Matières Fécales, first drawing attention online for extreme styling, prosthetic-looking footwear and transformative makeup before developing the label into a Paris Fashion Week presence. Their designs have since been worn by stars including Zendaya, Sarah Paulson and Gabbriette, while Rihanna attended the Spring 2027 show in a custom Matières Fécales look.
The 'Ninety-Nine Percent' Takes Paris
The show expanded Bhaskaran's personal history into a broader story about access, class and representation. 'This collection is an homage to the strength of the 99 percent,' he said, describing the project as a tribute to people who do not usually have access to fashion, beauty or luxury. The casting was also tied to his memories of growing up around low-income communities, rather than functioning simply as a runway concept.
Place de la République sharpened that message. The vast public square, long associated with demonstrations and civic gatherings, hosted the runway around the Monument à la République, taking the collection outside the more insulated settings usually associated with luxury fashion. The show closed with models carrying lifelike billionaire figures on their backs as Nina Simone's 'Tomorrow Is My Turn' played, extending the collection's class theme into its final image.
🇬🇧 Two Black models carried hyper-realistic mannequins of old White men with dollar-bill blindfolds during the Matières Fécales Spring/Summer 2027 show at Paris Fashion Week.
— Europa.com (@europa) September 30, 2026
Vogue reported that the designers described the collection as representing “the 99%,” with the final… pic.twitter.com/aAL2XCVoev
The collection unfolded across three acts, moving from family history to resistance and more couture-focused imagery. White draping, covered heads and religious references reflected Bhaskaran's childhood across different faith environments, while distressed leather, shredded knits, spikes and 'RESIST' garments pushed the second section towards punk. Later looks included hand-woven cotton from Burkina Faso and saris embroidered in Varanasi, alongside sculptural gowns and footwear made with Christian Louboutin.
A Family Story Comes Full Circle
Matières Fécales designer Bhaskaran, his mother Grace, his sister Shandeal and his niece Vihannna walking their SS27 show together 🤍 pic.twitter.com/lvzEYjxqxN
— Kea (@jacquemusx) September 29, 2026
The most literal connection between Bhaskaran's past and present came when he walked alongside his mother, sister and niece. Years earlier, he had sketched fantasy couture while sharing a mattress with family; in Paris, members of that same family became part of the collection's story. 'This is not just a collection; it's my life story,' he said of the show.
The presentation also acted as a counterpart to Matières Fécales' previous The One Percent collection, which drew on Dalton's more privileged upbringing and satirised wealth and status. By shifting the focus to Bhaskaran's childhood, the designers placed two sharply different experiences of class inside consecutive collections. For Spring 2027, the label's fantasy was not detached from hardship but built directly from the memories that came before it.
