Diotima’s Rachel Scott had already begun working on her fall collection when she was named a finalist for the 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in October of last year. “I think I felt a lot of pressure—I put a lot of pressure on myself in general—but I felt like I needed to expand,” she explained outside the Chelsea gallery where her presentation was taking place. She imagined a film that takes place over 24 hours in a woman’s life. But this was no classic day-to-night magazine story; this woman’s life begins at “4 a.m. at a party, and you’re a little bit undone. Then you go through your day, slowly coming back together, going about your life, and ending at a party the next night.” Hence the model doing the splits wearing one of her signature knit tanks with a fringed macramé skirt that opens her look book. Welcome to Diotima’s world.
Scott designs with an eye for texture first, and it’s what adds to the allure of her clothes. For fall a lot of crochet was “kind of cascading, like it’s coming undone,” as she put it. See: a mango yellow skirt paired with a white knit tank and a zip-up jacket with hand-stitched fabric tubes, the designer’s version of fur, and an easy marled dress in shades of pink and purple with a turtleneck and short, draped sleeves. A three-button jacket in a vibrant shade of orange-pink featured circular cutouts at the waist trimmed in fringe. There were also crochet embellishments on more tailored pieces, like a burgundy wool jean-style jacket and matching wide-leg creased trousers, while the designer declared a cropped button-down shirt with tonal crochet stripes to be her favorite piece in the collection. Other highlights included macramé skirts and dresses in blue and red stripes and a gorgeous little vest covered in golden flowers made from ribbons and finished with a crystal in the middle (worn by itself with a black macramé skirt).
Elsewhere, a burgundy, yellow, and black glen-plaid suit had subtle beading and hand-stitching that nearly blended with the pattern—almost like a secret. Outerwear, tailoring, and shirting especially felt just as part of Scott’s world as the colorful miniskirts and barely-there dresses she is known for. Even lovers of minimalism and quiet luxury would be able to find something to add to their wardrobe. “It can be quiet,” Scott said, “but it’s not boring.”
