The brand name behind recent showstopping fashion moments isn’t quite as delicate as their romantic and otherworldly looks. When asked what an ethereal Zendaya was wearing for the “Odyssey” premiere in New York, her stylist Law Roach responded: “Fecal Matter.”

Zendaya’s angelic strapless gown with feathered white wings was the work of Matières Fécales — yes, in English, Fecal Matter — the Paris-based, high-end fashion house founded in Montreal over a decade ago that’s, seemingly suddenly, everywhere.

Why Matières Fécales is called … that

The design duo behind Matières Fécales, Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton, have aimed to subvert beauty with their own alien-like personal style, including dramatic white makeup, shaved heads and eyebrows, and skin boots made to look like realistic feet.

Bhaskaran and Dalton started the brand as students at Collège LaSalle Montréal, going from selling designs on the secondhand shopping platform Depop to showcasing collections at Paris Fashion Week. The designers have said the name reflects their view of the fashion industry, a perspective they initially summed up with a more vulgar word.

“There’s no other word for it, but how can we say it in a glamorous way? So we’re like, ‘fecal matter’ is the scientific word for it,” Dalton recalled to Vogue last year, adding they translated it into French, which “sounds way more glamorous.” Bhaskaran told the “Fashion Neurosis” podcast in March that the name was also intended to “challenge the wasteful side of fashion.”

A representative for Matières Fécales said the designers were not available for comment.

Despite the visceral name, tastemakers from Lady Gaga to Kylie Jenner are embracing their designs.

“There is this beautiful tension in their work between the finesse and the decaying, and the strong and the soft,” celebrity stylist Brad Goreski told The Associated Press.

And after years of building a cult following, they were taken under the wings of Dover Street Market in 2024, after first meeting its president, Adrian Joffe, backstage at a Madonna show. The global retail and concept stores offer emerging brands development support, from production and distribution to sales.

Kristen Bateman, a longtime fashion and culture writer who has attended all three of the designers’ Paris Fashion Week shows, said their rise is driven by the industry’s desire to see something new.

“If you’re looking at the high-fashion brands like Chanel and Dior, it all sort of starts to blend together,” she said. “And this feels like it’s in its own category. … You can’t replicate it.”

From cult status to Paris Fashion Week

Milan Tanedjikov, a Collège LaSalle Montréal design teacher, had a front-row seat to Dalton and Bhaskaran’s rise and says they have finally found the balance between their art and fashion.

“They have created this, like, very interesting organism together,” he said.

The designers were invited onto the official calendar for Paris Fashion Week last year, debuting “The Other,” a collection they described as an ode to being fearless with identity. It featured a collaboration pairing their striking curved-heel design with Christian Louboutin’s signature red sole.

“At their very core, what drives them is absolute freedom of expression, and they want to push the boundaries of what is human,” Tanedjikov said.

In March, during Paris Fashion Week, the duo unveiled “The One Percent,” with models theatrically strutting with red paint on white opera gloves and wearing eye masks made of dollar bills. The collection showcased how “power affects us all,” they wrote on Instagram.

“What they were able to build in such a small amount of time is really insane in terms of world building and creating their world,” Augustin Maunier, Dover Street Market’s director of brand development, said. “There’s real storytelling behind it.”

The show’s theme was a stark contrast to the billionaires who had been sitting front row at other fashion week shows. At this year’s Met Gala, where Jeff Bezos was an honorary chair, actor Sarah Paulson wore a voluminous, gray, distressed ball gown from the collection, paired with the eye-covering money mask.

Goreski pulled from “The One Percent” for Demi Moore’s wardrobe as a Cannes Film Festival jury member, telling the AP he wanted something new for Moore. Moore’s frayed, full-volume, Barbie-pink ball gown with a distressed bow was a break from her usual structured looks. In 20 years of dressing Moore, Goreski said she hardly ever chooses a full-skirt “cupcake” shape, but that she fell for the designers’ artistic vision and storytelling.

“They’re designing clothes for themselves,” he said. “That’s authentically them, but they’re bringing it to like a whole other audience.”

Find their clothes on Lady Gaga and a Dunkin’ ad

Early supporters of the brand fittingly included boundary-breaking performers Madonna and Lady Gaga. Madonna even invited them to DJ on her tour in 2023 and they’ve designed custom looks for Gaga’s live performances, including Coachella. At this year’s Grammys, Gaga wore a high-neck, feathered, black gown from the designers, a dark angel to Zendaya’s heavenly “Odyssey” look.

Now, though, their bold designs are going beyond red carpets. In a television ad for Dunkin’, Kylie Jenner wore a blush-pink, satin, structured blazer with over-the-top shoulder pads, a designer choice that generated some amusement online from those previously unfamiliar with the brand’s name.

The designers created a distressed Victorian-style dress for model Gabbriette Bechtel’s wedding to musician Matty Healy, a first for the brand. With their next Paris Fashion Week show set for September, fashion connoisseurs are eagerly waiting to see what’s next.

“We’re rooting for them because they’re younger designers who have something to say,” fashion commentator Hanan Besovic, who posts online as @Ideservecouture, said.

Russia could send an armed group to occupy NATO territory in Europe, US intelligence said this week. 

The warning comes despite Vladimir Putin facing fresh humiliation as Ukraine‘s strikes intensify and move further into Russia. 

Until now, US intelligence believed the Kremlin dictator would not risk provoking NATO while fighting in Ukraine.

But this assessment changed this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

NATO members believe Putin is already conducting probing attacks to test and fracture the alliance. 

Western fighter jets have been scrambled three times in the last few weeks to shoot down drones, while Ukraine recently intercepted a drone that had earlier crossed into Romanian airspace.

And fighter jets were scrambled over 250 per cent more in July compared with a year ago as Russia continues to probe the West’s defences. 

The sharp increase in the monthly figure for July compared with the same month in 2025 highlights Putin’s aggressive stance. 

File image: A still image taken from a handout video provided by the Russian Defence Ministry press service on 07 August 2026 shows a Russian self-propelled gun firing at an undisclosed location in Ukraine

NATO members believe Putin is already conducting probing attacks to test and fracture the alliance. Pictured: A Russian 220mm heavy multiple launch rocket system firing at an undisclosed location in Ukraine

Advertisement

‘The numbers do not lie,’ said a post by NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum.

‘The possible threats range from a cyberattack on a NATO country or sending unmarked armed groups to occupy territory to a limited incursion on the alliance’s eastern flank,’ said the WSJ report.

The time frame for a Russian move is between this autumn and 2029, according to US intelligence assessments.

‘We are always thinking through and preparing for any number of scenarios,’ said NATO spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell.

‘NATO is watching and we are ready to deter and defend as necessary.’

The warnings come amid US concern about a shortfall of munitions after supplies to Ukraine and use in the Middle East conflict.

One theory is Putin could grab a city or region in Poland or one of the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all NATO members which have strongly backed Ukraine.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda warned recently: ‘I cannot deny that we have such information and that it concerns kinetic operations.

‘Not on a large scale, but targeted kinetic operations that are very likely to be directed against critical infrastructure.’

Russian opposition politician and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov said: ‘I think the chances [are] that he’ll cross NATO borders — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, just a small incursion using drones.

‘I think the chances are growing because Putin needs a winning narrative and Ukraine doesn’t offer it.’

All three Baltic states have strengthened their border defences against Russia and close ally Belarus.

The Baltic states have some of the highest defence spending in all of NATO in relative terms – Lithuania directs 5.3 percent of GDP to defence, the most of NATO’s 32 members. 

Last month, Washington warned the Kremlin could be planning an armed incursion on Polish land to test Nato‘s response.

The provocation could see Putin‘s troops cross over into Poland, and vital infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones.

Sources close to Polish President Karol Nawrocki told news outlet Onet that the US had been warning Warsaw about the plan for a while.

Russia’s plan aims to start a crisis to scare Western nations into stopping their support for Ukraine. 

Polish security experts also warned that Russia and Belarus might send a small number of troops across the Nato border.

Until now, US intelligence believed the Kremlin dictator would not risk provoking NATO while fighting in Ukraine. File image shows a Russian soldier in an unknown location in Ukraine

A Russian serviceman intercepting Ukraine drones with a machine-gun at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on August 7

Advertisement

Power stations could also be targeted in the incursion, through air strikes that would force Poland to activate its air defence systems.

Moscow’s strategy relies on the assumption that the US would compel Poland to negotiate rather than engage militarily. 

It comes as Ukrainian long-range drones hit a warehouse in the Ural Mountains belonging to Russia’s biggest online retailer, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the two countries’ border, local officials and the company said Friday.

Ukraine has regularly hit targets in the distant Urals this year and has even struck a Russian oil refinery in western Siberia, nearly 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from the border. 

The attacks are examples of how Kyiv has used drone innovation as a key part of its response to the invasion by its much bigger enemy more than four years ago.

Its successes have drawn international interest and drone cooperation agreements with nine countries, with further deals being negotiated with 15 other countries, according to Kyiv officials.

A Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, was set ablaze by the attack, the company said. 

Most merchandise wasn’t damaged, it said, unlike at some of the more than a dozen other Wildberries depots struck by Ukraine in recent weeks that have burned down. Kyiv is trying to rattle the Russian public and the Kremlin with the attacks.

File image: A fire breaks out following massive Russian ballistic missile strikes in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on August 5, 2026, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine

File image: Smoke billows from a warehouse, after deadly Ukrainian drone attacks, as per regional governors, in Elektrostal, Moscow Region, Russia

File image: A man walks past burned-out cars and a residential building that went up in flames during a recent Russian strike are scattered in a residential area, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, July 30, 2026

The regional governor, Denis Pasler, said three drones hit the warehouse’s roof. Artyom Zhoga, the Kremlin’s representative in the region, said that 800 people were evacuated from the warehouse and nobody was hurt.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for his country to keep up the pace of technological development, especially in air defense systems to help stop Russian ballistic missiles that are exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of American-made Patriot interceptor missiles and battering civilian areas.

A joint European anti-ballistic development program is already underway, Zelenskyy said late Thursday, with 10 countries engaged in developing an anti-ballistic shield. Europe is concerned about Moscow’s ambitions on the continent beyond Ukraine.

‘Ukraine is capable of producing its (anti-ballistic) missile and launcher, while our partners will provide the necessary components and critical elements – radars, sensors, and everything else required,’ Zelenskyy said on social media.

‘An anti-ballistic program of our own – one that is truly large-scale – will greatly benefit everyone in Europe.’

At the same time, Ukraine is working on manufacturing its own ballistic missiles to use against Russia. ‘The tests have shown strong potential. We need to turn this into a real weapon,’ Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian front-line defenses in eastern regions, meanwhile, remain under strain as Russia’s bigger army looks for a breakthrough after months of minimal advances that Western analysts and official says have had a high cost for Moscow in troop casualties.

Ukraine has been evacuating children from Kramatorsk, one of the four eastern Donetsk region cities that make up Ukraine’s so-called Fortress Belt. 

The line of four large and heavily defended cities, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) long, has been key to denying Moscow its goal of seizing Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

The head of the Donetsk region’s regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, said Friday that more than 800 people, including 91 children, were evacuated over the previous 24 hours.

Ukraine has been deploying midrange strike drones to disrupt Russia’s supply lines and slow it advance.

Russia and Ukraine sustain nightly drone attacks

Russia’s air defenses downed 203 Ukrainian drones from late Thursday through early Friday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 147 long-range strike drones, according to the country’s air force.

In Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, a Russian drone struck a busy market Friday morning, wounding 10 people, authorities said.

Russia also launched glide bombs and drones of various types at the regional capital, according to the head of regional administration, Oleh Hryhorov.

The attack targeted residential buildings, transport and infrastructure, wounding two people, he said.

While the FIFA World Cup has now come to an end, it’s almost time for the new football season to start.

There’ll be plenty of matches coming up, which can sometimes result in schedule changes for the soaps.

This week though, it’s an EFL Cup match that disrupts the scheduling.

Here’s what we know about the TV schedule shake-up and which episodes the changes affect.

Emmerdale and Coronation Street axed from ITV tonight

Emmerdale and Coronation Street usually air 30-minute episodes on ITV1 at 8pm and 8.30pm respectively, Monday to Friday, in what is known as the “soaps power hour” (introduced in January 2026).

However, there will be no new episodes airing this evening as an EFL Cup match, which will see Middlesbrough take on Wrexham, airs at the same time as the usual soap slots on ITV1.

Coverage of the match starts from 7.30pm and runs until ITV News at 10 begins at the later time of 10.25pm.

ITV1 will instead air an Emmerdale episode at 7pm on Sunday, August 9 followed by Corrie at 7.30pm.

Apart from the schedule changes for Friday, Emmerdale and Coronation Street has aired as normal this week.

Former Corrie star describes career as “famine” as he’s not been paid in 6 months

Actor John Thomson has revealed he hasn’t done a single acting job for six months.

The Cold Feet and Fast Show star is best known for roles such as Pete Gifford in the romantic drama Cold Feet, Jesse Chadwick in Coronation Street, and the dim-witted barman Ken in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly.

The 57-year-old also appeared in the Fast Show for character sketches.

Although 2025 was busy with his appearances in Art Detectives and The Madame Blanc Mysteries, he said this year has brought “famine” in his acting career – part of what he believes is a wider trend affecting traditional broadcasters.

In a recent interview on the Scarred For Life podcast, John said: “Last year was feast, this year famine.

“I haven’t done a single acting job for six months.

“It’s hard now.

“No one has got any money.

“The thing is that commercial stations that rely on advertising everybody has switched to platforms where just pay subscriptions.

“If you want to advertise your product why would you pick a commercial station that people are kind of tuning out of?

“You’re not getting the views.”

Are you a big soap fan? Tell us your best Corrie and Emmerdale moments in the comments below.