Rachel Scott has quickly become a star in New York fashion that continues to shine. In only four years since launching Diotima, the Jamaican American designer has won the CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year in 2023 and Womenswear Designer of the Year last year, which she is nominated for again in 2025. Two weeks ago, Scott was also named creative director of Proenza Schouler, where she’d been busy over the last few months collaborating and consulting with its design team for its spring presentation that displayed the beginning of what’s to come with her debut show in February.
“I’m super happy to be there. The balance — I’m getting into my groove. Diotima is super small, and I was the only person on products up until I started consulting over there, before I was appointed. It’s really forced me to put in some structure that I couldn’t have before because of resources,” Scott said backstage of her debut runway show at Proenza Schouler.
It’s allowed her to focus more on the creative. She’s already captivated the industry with her unique approach to luxury craft and special point of view — the H&M-owned Cos donated its Greenpoint location, including power, front and back of house furnishings, internet and lighting to support her creativity, a strong signal of what supporting brands can look like. With spring 2026, Scott continued to surprise with exuberant, powerful clothes.
“I think it’s a real continuation, at least emotionally, from last season. I was extremely angry in fall, and I’m still angry, but I think that it’s manifesting in a completely different way,” Scott said, explaining how being an emotional designer is one of the reasons she started her brand. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Carnival in the Caribbean in particular, but also in the diaspora. It’s a moment of resistance. It’s rebellion against repressive forces in a very exuberant and sensual and subversive way.”
She wasn’t seeking to literally recreate the procession “because it’s perfect and needs no updates,” she said, but looked to its history as a starting point for exuberant colors and subversive, radical character archetypes.
Scott opened the show, titled “Bacchanal,” with new sporty takes on her signature crystal mesh knits — drop crotch pants, hoods and new fully fashioned swimwear. She then dove into the sailor archetype, but in lieu of militant gear, there were great fluid duster and morning coats decorated with hand-melted paillettes and knit jersey styles with sailor collars and tubular chenille ribs. Each incorporated her sharp take on the famous cage bras that emphasized the bust, a décolletage-inspired detail also seen on square-toed shoes, a new category for the designer.
She layered the tailored lot with ample volume and color, as in button-ups inspired by the Baby Doll persona with bias fringed tunics with threaded peplums and shredded midi skirts in unexpected, vibrant grenadine red, guava pink, magenta and blue against storm gray, cumin brown, black and white, before closing the show with unrestrictive feather-like gowns that riffed on Dame Loren’s pumped-up proportions with lightweight internal petticoat constructions (sans boning). The collection proved Scott is only leveling up with modern wearable fashion that projects a new type of power, craft and sexiness.