Hannah Rose Dalton of the duo Fecal Matter (also known by their French handle @matieresfecales, if you will) is learning to walk. The two-person group, comprised of Dalton and her partner, Steven Raj Bhaskaran, are known for their freakish, otherworldly visuals on Instagram. But the clip they just sent me is different than their normal content; it’s a home video of Dalton’s very first steps. In a simple black dress, a far cry from her typical extreme corset pieces, Dalton takes a few baby steps. Those clomps and awkward knee bends make me feel like I’m watching a just-born giraffe touch down on the ground. Or maybe a freshly birthed gangly goat. I hear Bhaskaran in the background: “Maybe show them the leg?” Dalton slightly lifts her dress to reveal the top of a fleshy cuissarde of the palest ivory. Dalton has gotten new feet—warped, alien, pulled, and tugged feet, to be exact. She’s wearing Fecal Matter’s latest creation, a skin boot that blends, or rather morphs, into its owner’s legs. It comes complete with a stab-you-in-the-eye satanic horn heel and defined piggy-wiggy toes. On the shin is a mini extension that curves upward like a thorny vestigial tail. The one non-lifelike part is a plastic platform that resembles an upside-down cup.
Fecal Matter, founded three years ago by Montreal-based Dalton and Bhaskaran, has been running a clothing line, playing deejaying gigs, and shocking followers through a fantasy-meets-reality Instagram universe. But their foray into footwear seems to be their biggest feat yet. Dalton and Bhaskaran began thinking about the shoes about a year ago around the time that I first spoke with them for a Vogue profile. “The biggest focus of the [Vogue] article was the foot and the shoe,” says Bhaskaran via Skype. “Everyone was like, ‘Is it Photoshopped? Is it not Photoshopped?’ We wanted to put it out in real life.” The digitally altered, not-for-walking foot shoe in question was a pair of nightmarish skin ballet flats, fashioned in a petrified en pointe form. They appeared stiff and possessed, boasting a steep scythe heel and squished angular toes. They were made with prosthetics and then perfected with Photoshop. For the duo, making these shoes wearable was to prove that their altered world on Instagram could be translated onto the sidewalks. “We can get this alien look and present it and tweak it with Photoshop and make it look really realistic,” says Bhaskaran. “But at the same time, there is always this dysphoria in us. There is this urge inside of us to take what we do on the Internet and try to create that via real life. That is what we are doing with the shoes.”
It was a long and lofty process to make the footwear. (There were four trial versions in total.) Each part was made out of silicon that was shaped and molded to match Dalton’s leg. Skin hue, dents, moles, the arch of the foot, and even the hair mimics Dalton’s actual leg. (“There are little hairs!” she says.) The duo worked with the artist Sarah Sitkin, who specializes in creating replicas of bodies and body parts. (Her latest project, “Bodysuits,” shows eerily lifelike, wearable silicon body tunics that show an array of sags, rolls, abs, and potbellies.) Dalton and Bhaskaran describe the creation of the shoe as a couture-type process. “The shoe is like when you are going to Chanel to get a wedding dress. You get the fittings and the customizations. For even me to get the shoe, I have to stand and each of my legs have to be perfectly molded,” says Dalton, while Bhaskaran adds, “It is like creating a custom art piece that is wearable.” The shoes, like anything Chanel, come with a hefty price: The starting rate for the thigh-high is $10,000.
Fecal Matter’s philosophy behind the footwear reflects what they think humans will eventually look like as a result of body modification, social media, and advances in technology. The two have long toyed with fantasy and reality, and the shoes are the latest example of how they merge the two worlds. But Fecal Matter isn’t the first group to dip into this sphere. This past August, Simon Huck, the makeup artist to the Kardashians, showed the exhibition “A. Human,” which included neck extensions and a corset that spawned roots, all of which questioned exactly how far body modification will go. Though, Bhaskaran insists Fecal Matter’s views are different from the “A. Human” ones, explaining that they’re interested in the functional potential of these modifications. Eventually, Fecal Matter wants to explore how their man-made extremities can be of use.
Shock value aside, the shoes are about connecting with a community—a longstanding value of Fecal Matter. “The bottom line is the masses aren’t going to adapt to this. It isn’t like tomorrow everyone is going to be wearing these heels, but we want the masses to accept it and see it as something not scary or intimidating,” says Bhaskaran. “Through our platform, a lot of people are gaining confidence and living their lives without fear.”
As for the future of skin heels? At the moment, Fecal Matter only has one pair, which the duo debuted today at their first-ever fashion show at the Mandrake in London. Although, they have plans to make more. Bhaskaran is currently in the midst of having their own made. “It’s going to have more hair,” they say. And for the rest of us? Fecal Matter has plans to churn out skin heels that will be more accessible and at a lesser price point. “We’re thinking pumps,” says Bhaskaran. Sounds casual, at least for Fecal Matter.
