After a summer of industry whispers, Rachel Scott, the beloved designer of Diotima, was named creative director at Proenza Schouler today, replacing brand founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who left New York for Paris to head up Loewe, a post that was left vacant when Jonathan Anderson went to Dior.
Scott, who is 41 and Jamaican, is an industry veteran, with about two decades of experience in Milan and New York at labels as diverse as Costume National and J. Mendel, Elizabeth and James and Rachel Comey. “Most of my career, I was crafting brands that were not my perspective. That’s my training,” she says. Look at her trajectory another way, though, and she’s an overnight sensation, not all that unlike McCollough and Hernandez once were. Having launched Diotima in 2021, the “undone,” “rebellious” spirit of her label and its Jamaica-made crochet tops and dresses so resonated with our post-pandemic times, she picked up the CFDA’s Emerging Designer of the Year and Womenswear Designer of the Year Awards in quick succession in 2023 and 2024, without even staging a runway show. In 2024, she bested fellow Womenswear nominees Marc Jacobs, Thom Browne, Tory Burch, and the Proenza Schouler designers themselves.
Scott’s first runway for Diotima is scheduled for September 15. Proenza Schouler’s spring 2026 collection, to be shown in presentation format next week, was developed by the designer and the brand’s studio after she was invited to quietly consult at the label earlier this year, but before her creative directorship was made official. Consider it an “opening statement and an intimate preview of her perspective,” as the company’s press release puts it. For more of Scott’s point of view on Proenza Schouler’s codes, her own craft practice, and what being a woman designer means in a spring 2026 field of predominantly male creative directors, read on.
What place does Proenza Schouler have in your head and why did you want to sort of put your, put your stamp on it?
I ve always thought about it as one of the legendary American brands. When they started I was early in my career, in university, and I was quite obsessed with it. It felt more global than other American brands, and it was so rooted in design and craft. Those bras from the first few seasons, I was obsessed with them. I’ve always had this respect for them. It’s so different from my brand. Not that I get bored with my brand, but I’ve worked in the industry so long, and I’ve always had this practice of working with different design challenges. Trying to imagine what the codes and legacy are, but moving it forward in dialogue with my perspective, I found it exciting.
Who is the Diotima woman and who is the Proenza Schouler woman? Do they overlap?
I think they’re both intellectual. I hate to use that term because it’s often put-on and I prefer a self-authorship for women and we don’t often get that in industry. But in that way they’re aligned. I think that the Diotima woman is very sensual. There is a lot of eroticism, but again, self-authored; I think it would be interesting to have some sensuality here, but not in the same way. The Proenza woman is very polished, but with ease and approachability, which is quite different than over at Diotima where she’s very undone and much more rebellious. It feels like different sides of me, different days, in a way.
What’s been the biggest surprise about working here?
What’s really nice is working in a place with a team. That’s going to be exciting for the true first collection in February, where I really get to, like, play with the developers, the material researchers.
Any challenges?
I’m quite optimistic. So challenges don’t really set me back. I don’t have an intention of turning the brand on its head. I think that there is a beautiful legacy here. I think it has to move forward. So it’s going to be an evolution—not a revolution, an evolution. There are people that have been here for a long time, but it’s not really a challenge. It’s more about them learning my perspective and just coming together on that.
When people see Proenza Schouler next week, what will the similarities or through-lines be, and what will feel fresh and different?
There will be similarities in terms of the sharpness of tailoring. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and it’s such a strong element of the brand. Some of the color will be a through-line, but then some of the color is going to be surprising. And I think the most obvious thing is going to be materiality, because I am obsessed with texture and materials. I think that will show.
You’re a woman taking over a brand founded by men. Does that hold any resonance for you? Do you see yourself as a force for change because of that?
I think that’s a real thing. I’ve worked for men and women throughout my career, and there’s definitely a different approach. I think [men can] have a real love for women, but they’re not women themselves. I can really get into how I need to feel when I need to feel powerful, or where I need to feel sharp. I have more access to the sensuality of women, because I hold that in my existence. So in the way that that wasn’t touched on as much, it will get touched on, I hope. I want to, as we move forward.
Did you know Jack and Lazaro before this?
I didn’t, but I knew the previous CEO Kay Hong because she was my mentor at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Before my presentation last September my shoes didn’t arrive, and I was calling everyone I knew. Kay got the team here to help me try and figure out with UPS how to get the shoes. And Lazaro said to Kay, ‘if she doesn’t get her shoes, just tell her to come over here and she can get whatever she needs for her show.’ When she told me that I was sobbing. I was just so, so, so thankful. And everyone was like, whatever, it’s fine obviously. And I was like, no, that’s not obvious. People don t do things like that. And then I was nominated for the Womenswear Designer of the Year [at the CFDA Awards], and they were nominated too, and somehow I won, and I thanked them without saying who they were in the speech. When Shira decided that she thought I’d be a good fit for the temporary role, then I got some zoom with them from Paris.
Did you wind up using their shoes for your show?
I did not. My shoes arrived at 7 am the morning of my show.
Back to the Zoom…
We had an hour-and-a-half Zoom, and we just talked about everything, from owning a business to design to craft—everything.
It’s a big thing to walk away from this, right? Proenza Schouler is such an American success story;to take this leap, to go to Paris, which is not a welcoming place, as a rule, to American designers…
I have the ultimate respect for them for what they built, and to have had such an important role in fashion in this country.
Talk a little bit more about balancing these two brands. To be upfront about it, I see it as a real challenge to manage two distinct design teams. How do you plan on nurturing both labels?
Most of my career, I worked for other designers. Most of my career, I was crafting brands that were not my perspective. That’s my training. But also because of how specific Diotima is, I actually find [managing both brands] not that challenging. It’s actually quite fun: I can be really ridiculous over at Diotima, I can be really more radical over there if I want to be. Not that I’m not going to have interesting ideas here. But there is a formality here that doesn’t exist over at Diotima. I like this kind of push and flow. This is a really long-winded way to say it, but one of my favorite filmmakers is Raoul Peck. He made two films about Haiti after the earthquake. One is a documentary, and one is a film, and it s kind of loosely based on Teorema [ by Pier Paolo Pasolini], which is my favorite film. I saw him speak at the Metrograph, and he said that he made both films at the same time, because where he found limitations in the documentary form, he moved to the film, and where he found limitations there, he moved back. And I always found that so inspiring.
Are you working with a stylist?
Yes, Marika-[Ella Ames], who styles with Diotima. It’s unspoken at this point, we understand each other, and she’s so, so, so talented. I’ve just been so lucky over at Diotima to work with people I really admire.
Will it feel like a Proenza cast? Or will it have a little bit more Rachel in it?
I think it will be a little bit of a mix. I think that’s more than anything where I hope to point to the future.
I’d like you to talk just a little bit more about what you think you can do here that you can’t do at Diotima?
Like?
Like, oh, are you really excited to dress somebody for a red carpet? Jack and Lazaro would often dress celebrities, It-girls.
Maybe one day I’ll dress Isabelle Huppert. That would be goals. What I’m more excited about… you know, I love craft so much. But I hate when people think about it as an aesthetic, like crafty or nostalgic, or whatever. For me, it’s not an aesthetic, it’s a practice. What’s nice about craft here is that it can be really quite technical. It can be a technique that’s made by a very specialized machine that maybe I don’t have access to with my resources at Diotima. I could develop insane textiles that maybe I couldn’t do over there. Here, there’s really so much I can do. So that’s really exciting, more than anything.
