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Rachel Scott, the founder of New York-based label Diotima, has been named creative director at Proenza Schouler. She succeeds founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who departed earlier this year to take on Loewe after Jonathan Anderson’s exit for Christian Dior.
“It is with great excitement that I join Proenza Schouler, a brand at the heart of American fashion, and one I have long admired,” offered Scott via press release. “I hold deep respect for the beauty and world Jack and Lazaro so brilliantly crafted, and I look forward to bringing my perspective in dialogue with their legacy. I am grateful to Shira [Suveyke Snyder, CEO of Proenza Schouler for her trust and I am honored to step into this role to envision the next chapter of Proenza Schouler.”
Scott, 41, began her career in Milan at design house Costume National after her studies at Istituto Marangoni. She is known for her craft-first approach at Diotima, the label she founded in 2021 while still vice-president of design at Rachel Comey in New York.
Scott’s take on luxury is expansive and challenges the notions of what fashion offered at a certain price point can or should involve. To wit, Diotima is known for its crochet dresses and tops, which Scott has made entirely in her home country of Jamaica, and her crystal mesh separates. To the naked eye, these are resort staples, but Scott has rendered them in a way that evokes demi-couture.
Scott has cultivated a tight, diverse community for Diotima that grows by the season, which has elevated the label to become a consecutive winner of two CFDA Fashion Awards, first in 2023 for Emerging Designer of the Year and again in 2024 for Womenswear Designer of the Year. Scott was a runner-up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2023 and a finalist for the 2023 LVMH Prize and for the 2025 Woolmark Prize. She accepted the inaugural Frazier Family Foundation x CFDA Empowered Vision Award in 2024 and won the Fashion Trust US award for ready-to-wear earlier this year.
“As one of the most celebrated global design talents of today, Rachel brings a fresh and female perspective to a brand built on the spirit of the modern American woman,” said Suveyke Snyder. “Her profound understanding of Proenza Schouler’s brand codes, paired with her exceptional ability to marry craft with innovation, made her the natural choice to lead the brand forward.”
Proenza Schouler was founded by Hernandez and McCollough in 2002. Named after the duo’s mothers’ maiden names, the origin story of the label remains an industry fairytale: their first collection, which was their joint thesis at the Parsons School of Design in New York, was bought by Barneys under Julie Gilhart’s leadership. In 2004, Proenza Schouler became the recipient of the inaugural CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize. The label is known for dressing some of New York’s most stylish women and launching a key It-bag of the late 2000s, the PS1.
Despite a promising start and early years, Proenza Schouler encountered a series of roadblocks. Fueled by investment and industry momentum early on, Hernandez and McCollough took their collection to Paris in 2017, a short-lived experiment that did not reap the expected rewards. They returned to New York Fashion Week in September 2018 for Spring/Summer 2019, recouping a controlling stake that November from private investment group Castanea Partners — to whom they had sold a minority stake in 2015 — and independent contributors led by Theory co-founder Andrew Rosen, with the goal of redirecting it after a series of managerial misfires. By the time Hernandez and McCollough exited their label in January this year, Proenza Schouler had regained its industry standing and stability, and had reportedly hired the designer Patrik Ervell to launch a menswear line. (It’s unclear if the project is still in development with Scott’s appointment.)
“When we left Proenza Schouler last January, we knew the story would go on, but not yet who would write the next chapter,” said McCollough and Hernandez. “Rachel is someone whose work we have always admired. Her trajectory over the last few years has been impressive to watch. As founders and board members of the company, we are proud to welcome her to this very special brand and excited to see how she will embrace and evolve the legacy and spirit of what we started.”
Despite how well-regarded her label is in New York, Scott has never staged a runway show for Diotima. Her first show for her own label will take place on 15 September, following the unveiling of the Proenza Schouler SS26 collection in New York earlier in the week, which Scott developed with the design studio after joining the label as a consultant earlier this year. This line-up will serve as an “opening statement and an intimate preview of her perspective”, per the brand. The designer’s official debut collection for Proenza Schouler will be for AW26, which will show in February 2026.
Next week, Scott will kick off a long, long season of fresh starts at houses including Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Versace and Balenciaga — that she is the only woman of color to do so will make this not just a memorable presentation, but a historic first.
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