Shira Suveyke Snyder joined Proenza Schouler as CEO in October 2024. About six weeks later, with the knowledge that founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez were headed to Paris to take the helm at Loewe (this wouldn’t be announced until March), she commenced her search for the pair’s successor. “Jack and Lazaro were open about their desire for a new chapter,” Suveyke Snyder says of her start at the New York brand. “We discussed long‑term transition planning, and what the next phase of Proenza could look like without them in the day‑to‑day.”
In the interim, Suveyke Snyder brought Diotima founder and creative director Rachel Scott on board to support the studio, as she felt continuous leadership was necessary to keep pushing the brand forward. “We had crossed paths before — we met at the CFDA Awards — but when it came to finding the right person to support the studio in the interim, Rachel felt like a natural choice,” she says. “Her sense of craft and materiality felt deeply aligned with the codes of the house.”
It wasn’t meant to be permanent. But soon, Suveyke Snyder found her search influenced by Scott’s work at the brand. “I would see what was going so well in her leadership style, in her entrepreneurial spirit, in her finesse of the brand’s codes,” the CEO says. “We got to a point where I was like, well, surely we can solve for this in a way that doesn’t compromise what Proenza needs day-to-day, and doesn’t compromise [Scott’s] thriving business.”
Plenty of creative directors at European luxury houses manage it, after all. Jonathan Anderson helmed JW Anderson and Loewe congruously for 11 years, and will do the same at Dior. While at Tom Ford, Haider Ackermann is no longer fronting his own label, but has retained his creative director role at Canada Goose. Grace Wales Bonner will continue her namesake brand alongside her Hermès post. But it’s a rare occurrence in New York, where there are few legacy houses to double up at.
“It’s a lot of flexibility on everybody’s side, but I don’t think there’s any creative director role that’s nine to five. You’re always-on, to some degree. It’s the nature of the beast,” Suveyke Snyder says from Proenza Schouler’s SoHo office space, which the company has occupied for over 20 years. They’re about to embark on a renovation. “A 2026 facelift,” Suveyke Snyder smiles. It’s an opportune moment, as Scott and Suveyke Snyder usher in a new era for the label that was once one of New York’s most exciting young outputs.
What’s most notable, though, is not that Scott is helming both Proenza and Diotima, but the moment at which she’s coming on board. Last year’s string of announcements — McCollough and Hernandez’s departure, followed by Scott’s appointment — arrived amid a flurry of creative director switch-ups, resulting in 15 creative director debuts last September. Yet this one was different: it marked the first time Proenza Schouler would be helmed by anyone but its founders.
Proenza Schouler, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, has been a mainstay in New York fashion since McCollough and Hernandez founded the brand, fresh out of Parsons School of Design. Their first collection — bought in full by Barneys — originated as their senior thesis. Throughout the brand’s history, they’ve dressed New York’s It-girls, and collected accolades, from the the first-ever CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize (2004) to multiple CFDA Awards, all while undergoing various ownership changes (the pair bought the brand back from Castanea Partners with a group of investors in 2018). Now, Scott is tasked with bringing McCollough and Hernandez’s American sportswear flair into 2026.
This passing of the torch meant the stakes were even higher, and made for a different type of search, Suveyke Snyder says. “While we needed to find someone who we felt could take on the creative legacy and chart an evolving course on that legacy, we also needed to ensure that we would find a cultural fit; one that could understand the gap, not just in direction, but of having founders depart a business,” she says. “Looking for a leader who could lead from a place of empathy, from a place of collaboration, somebody who has an entrepreneurial spirit — these were really important components that weren’t about a new creative director. It was about the transition of the founders.”
This culture match was key, and Scott fit the bill. “There is a New York grit to this company. There is not a preciousness to it,” Suveyke Snyder says. Having built her own business from scratch, Scott understands the work that’s gotten Proenza to where it is today, the CEO says. “That is hard to find.”
After showing her studio collaboration in a September presentation, Wednesday marks Scott’s official debut for Proenza Schouler. Ahead of the show, Suveyke Snyder spoke with Vogue Business about how she sees the brand evolving under Scott’s creative vision — and what this means for the Proenza Schouler business, in which McCollough and Hernandez remain minority shareholders, alongside a group of private investors. (The brand declined to share sales figures.) “It’s so exciting because it is so Proenza, but it’s different,” she says.
Here’s what’s next.
Proenza 2.0
Scott doesn’t intend to turn the Proenza Schouler brand on its head. “It’s going to be an evolution — not a revolution, an evolution,” she told Vogue last September. This has manifested in Scott’s first collection. “Proenza has always been a brand of craft. If you think about some of our most innovative years at Proenza, they were about the materiality and the fabric innovation, which is something Jack and Lazaro were deeply passionate about,” Suveyke Snyder says. “Rachel has really tapped into that piece of our DNA and re-emerged it for today.”
The CEO is conscious of the need to balance this evolution with the styles and staples Proenza’s loyal customer base loves the most. “There are pieces that are so distinctly us that I can almost look at them and know which are going to resonate with our existing customer, exactly what they’re looking for in silhouette, and the pieces that feel evolved and allow us to speak to a broader audience.”
To reach this broader audience, Suveyke Snyder is spearheading a revamp across Proenza Schouler’s retail and marketing strategies. In 2025, the focus was on digital expansion, improving backend efficiencies and frontend aesthetics across the brand’s dot-com and social feeds. Now, after moving into a new Mercer Street store last year, physical retail expansion is on the cards. Suveyke Snyder declines to share locations at this stage, but says the brand is in multiple contract negotiations, and that the first new store will open this summer. This is a significant move for a label that has never had more than two owned retail locations at once. (And currently has just the Mercer Street store.) It’s indicative of Suveyke Snyder’s focus on communicating the brand’s ethos and craftsmanship under Scott’s creative direction. Through physical stores, Proenza Schouler can better communicate its aesthetics and ideas via purpose-built spaces, rather than relying on buyer selections and placements.
Though Proenza’s next chapter will be marked by investment in the brand’s owned channels, wholesale will remain key, Suveyke Snyder says. A veteran of Net-a-Porter and Shopbop, the CEO acknowledges the tumultuous past 18 months, and says that what’s finally come to a head is that the retailer-brand relationship can no longer simply be transactional. “Brands have understood and prioritized speaking directly to their customer,” she says. “Wholesale will continue to be important for us — as long as we can tell our story effectively in that channel.”
To reach both wholesale and direct channels, Proenza Schouler is investing heavily into content, the CEO says. Those in the industry know and are excited about Scott’s role, but what about the more general consumer? It’s critical that customers understand what they’re investing in when they buy Proenza, she says. “We have an opportunity to be more overt about what we stand for and who we are, to provide more clarity through our content, our messaging, and our imagery.”
The Proenza Schouler and Diotima runway slots are indicative of how Scott will juggle both brands. “We’ll open New York Fashion Week [NYFW], and Diotima will close it,” Suveyke Snyder says. (Technically, NYFW ends the Monday after Diotima’s Sunday show, but the 16th is a far quieter day.)
The brand is proud to open NYFW this season; it’s an opportunity for Scott to show the community and customers her vision, Suveyke Snyder says. On whether the brand will continue to show in New York for future seasons, the CEO is quieter. (Recall McCollough and Hernandez decamped New York for Paris back in 2017 — but returned to the States the following year.) “The world is evolving,” she says, referencing how brands can get their stories out there in 2026. “Runway shows give us an incredible way to express the vision, so it’s a critically important time right now, but things evolve.” When asked if this means Proenza won’t show every season, Suveyke Snyder is firm: “Proenza is a runway brand.” So any evolution may well be in location, not format.
Looking ahead
Once her official Proenza debut is complete, Scott’s attention will turn to Sunday. Suveyke Snyder is squarely focused on what’s ahead. If 2026 is about perfecting brand storytelling, 2027 will be all about expansion.
Next year’s roadmap is centered around international growth, as well as product category expansion. The two are related; while in the US, Proenza is best known for its ready-to-wear, internationally, it is recognized for its handbags. “We have a history and a legacy of being a leather goods brand — especially when you think of the international market,” the CEO says. Outside the US, revenue primarily comes from leather goods sales.
Leather goods take time, from a manufacturing and product development perspective. The Fall/Winter 2026 runway will offer a preview of what a Proenza Schouler by Rachel Scott handbag might look like, but there’s lots more in the works, Suveyke Snyder says. “We’ll continue to see that build over the next couple of markets in June, and then again in September it’ll start to feel more full.”
Wednesday’s show, though, will offer a blueprint for this next chapter. “You really feel the codes of texture, materiality, strength of silhouette, balance of sharp and soft,” she says. “You’ll see it come through and it will feel like modern Proenza.”
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