All photos by Steven Raj (Matières Fécales)
Bambi, Amanda Lepore, Lou Trotignon, Galia, Mona La Doll, India Brooks, Gisele Parlmer, Moon, Fétiche, Lewis G Burton and Allanah Star
Dear Shaded Viewers,
At the Folies Bergère—Paris’s storied temple of spectacle, long associated with the shimmering excess of cabaret and the ghosts of performers past—a new kind of image-making unfolded, one that reframes both legacy and visibility through a contemporary, defiant lens.
In advance of Dolls Folies, Sasha Colby’s ambitious all-trans revue, photographer Steven Raj (half of the duo Matières Fécales), captured the full cast on the historic stage itself. The resulting series is less a traditional portrait sitting than a charged act of presence: an intergenerational assembly of trans bodies, identities, and histories, gathered in a space that has rarely, if ever, reflected them so fully. Performers span decades and geographies, from icons such as Amanda Lepore and Allanah Star to younger figures like Gigi Goode, alongside artists including Lewis G Burton and Sam Buttery, with some participants in their 80s and 90s—living archives of resilience and reinvention.
Crucial to the visual language of the project is the involvement of Matières Fécales, the Paris-based duo known for their radical approach to fashion as both critique and provocation. Emerging from the underground with a practice rooted in transformation and distortion, Matières Fécales has built a reputation for challenging normative ideas of beauty, identity, and luxury. Their work merges couture techniques with a deliberately unsettling aesthetic—latex-like skins, exaggerated silhouettes, alien forms—turning the body into a site of both armor and spectacle.
In this context, their garments operate not simply as styling but as ideological framing. Worn by the cast, the pieces—drawn from both couture and ready-to-wear—extend the performers’ personas into something mythic, almost otherworldly. The addition of Christian Louboutin’s sharply coded footwear and Stephen Jones’s theatrical millinery further anchors the images in a lineage of Parisian fashion while subtly destabilizing it. Tradition is present, but it is being rewritten.
The choice of the Folies Bergère is not incidental. Historically a site of fantasy shaped largely through a cisgender, heteronormative gaze, it becomes here a stage reclaimed. Raj’s portraits lean into this tension: velvet curtains, gilded architecture, and the weight of history contrast with the radical visibility of the subjects. The effect is not nostalgic but corrective—an insertion of narratives that have long existed but were systematically excluded from such grand cultural frames.
Dolls Folies itself extends this gesture into performance. Conceived by Sasha Colby, the show assembles a global cast of trans cabaret performers, drag artists, musicians, and entertainers, foregrounding both virtuosity and community. It is not only a celebration but also a platform of support, with proceeds directed toward La Maison d’Allanah, founded by Allanah Star to assist LGBTQ+ individuals in precarious situations, and Stop Homophobie, an organization dedicated to combating discrimination and supporting LGBTQ+ refugees in France.
What emerges from this convergence of fashion, photography, and performance is a layered proposition: visibility as both spectacle and strategy, beauty as something unruly and expansive, and heritage as a space that can be occupied, challenged, and transformed. Matières Fécales, through this collaboration, continue to articulate a vision of fashion that does not seek acceptance but rather insists on redefinition—one that aligns seamlessly with the ethos of Dolls Folies.
At the Folies Bergère, the past is not erased. It is confronted, adorned, and ultimately reimagined.
Later,
Diane
GROUP PHOTO, LEFT TO RIGHT:
Allanah Star, Angèle Micaux, Ines, Fétiche, India Brooks, Gigi Goode, Aela Chanel, Amanda Lepore,
Lewis G. Burton, Bambi, Lou Trotignon, Mona La Doll, La Briochée, Sasha Colby, Sam Buttery, Galia,
Moon, Gisele Palmer.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Photography : Steven Raj (Matières Fécales)
Clothing : Matières Fécales
Makeup and Hair: Artists own
Production : Premier Cri
1st assistant photo : Eryka Pruszynska
2nd assistant photo : Blair Hansen
