Rachel Scott’s runway debut at the beloved downtown label Proenza Schouler felt destined. The collection notes summarized the enduring brand codes—“color, precision, craft, proximity to art,” and “an edge sharpened by the city”—descriptions that could just as easily be applied to Scott’s own label, Diotima. Over the past five years, the Jamaica-born designer and 2024 CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year has developed a design vocabulary that blends meticulous tailoring with artisanal crochet, centering the work of Jamaican artisans. With Proenza cofounders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s move to Loewe last year, she is perfectly poised to carry forward their craft-driven, artful language while asserting her proudly feminist vision.
From the first look—a peacock-blue maxi dress with twisted seams that seemed to undulate around the body—Scott introduced a new sense of softness to Proenza’s cool urbanity. The collection moved with ease, skirts and dresses twirling across the back and fastening with buttons left partially undone, as if the models had dressed in a hurry. Scott’s genius lies in crafting clothes for two 9-to-5s: smart enough for the office, flexible enough to move when nighttime rhythms beckon. Here, she crushed, pleated, and bonded feather-light silk habotai into architectural volumes that balanced fluidity with structure. She also reinterpreted Proenza’s signature pleating and fringe, revealing knife pleats through side cutaways and sending grommets and half-cut fringe cascading across a series of finale gowns.
Proenza is perhaps best known for its lush velvet shibori tie-dye. While Scott’s work at Diotima typically favors solid colors, she gamely went for pattern, introducing photorealistic night orchids as prints and hand-painted motifs. The tropical blooms retained film-like borders and visible traces of process, layering digital artistry with artisanal handwork and infusing the collection with a tactile richness entirely her own. Accessories carried the same sensibility: Scott revived archival silhouettes, including the Hex bucket bag (marking its tenth anniversary), a bowler bag, and an oversize clutch, collaging calf hair, cashmere suede, French calf, and kidskin in wine-dark hues. Footwear embraced the ugly-chic shoe trend, from high-vamp pumps to kitten heels covered in ruptured fringe, an off-beat flourish that felt equal parts playful and provocative.
