Some of them have already graced this stage, back in the 1980s, when no one was watching yet. Photographer Steven Raj brings them back there—in haute couture this time, and in the spotlight.
The Palimpsest of a Scene
There is something dizzying about the image: Allanah Starr and Amanda Lepore on the stage of the Folies Bergère, wearing headpieces by Stephen Jones, Louboutin shoes, and designs by Matières Fécales. The sense of vertigo doesn’t stem from the extravagance of the scene—it stems from what we know, or sense, when looking at these women: they know this venue. Some of them have walked through it, lived in it, long before fashion came calling.
Allanah Starr performed there in the 1990s—at a time when trans identity was more of a cabaret curiosity than a mainstream topic. Steven Raj’s campaign doesn’t pretend to ignore this past—it deliberately invokes it by choosing a venue that predated institutional recognition by several decades.
Feces: Sewing as a Deliberate Political Act
The Parisian label Matières Fécales occupies a unique position in the contemporary fashion landscape: too haute couture for streetwear, too subversive for the elite. This lineup—Amanda Lepore, Gigi Goode, Sasha Colby, Lewis G Burton, Allanah Starr, Sam Buttery—is not a list of celebrities. It is a genealogy. Each of these figures represents an era, a space of resistance, and a distinct expression of trans identity in popular culture.
What Matières Fécales understands—and what many fashion houses that have been dressing trans icons for the past few seasons still seem to ignore—is that visibility is not an end in itself. It is a context. Putting these women on stage at the Folies, in plays that bear the mark of a genuine perspective, isn’t mere representation—it’s an affirmation.
Stephen Jones, Louboutin, and the Grammar of Transgressive Luxury
The collaborations announced in the campaign are worth taking a closer look at. Stephen Jones is one of the few milliners whose personal history spans both the queer clubs of the late 1970s and Dior’s fashion shows. Christian Louboutin, whose work has always been tied to artifice, grandeur, and performance, is a natural fit for such a lineup.
Proceeds from the campaign are donated to La Maison d’Allanah, an organization that supports transgender migrant women, and to Stop Homophobie. This detail, often relegated to a footnote in press releases, is central to this project. It transforms the photo shoot into an act of solidarity rather than a public relations stunt.
What the Image Says Without Saying It
After watching Steven Raj’s images, one question remains that doesn’t call for an immediate answer: when a famous scene—or rather, those scenes it has long exploited from the shadows—is this a form of redress or a new form of exploitation? *Matières Fécales* doesn’t take a stance. And perhaps that is what makes these images honest.
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