Jamaican-born designer Rachel Scott has been appointed creative director at Proenza Schouler, according to a Vogue Magazine report published Tuesday.
Scott, 41, succeeds founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who left the American luxury brand earlier this year to take the reins at French fashion house Loewe.
“It is with great excitement that I join Proenza Schouler, a brand at the heart of American fashion, and one I have long admired,” Scott said in a statement. “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.”
Scott launched her own label, Diotima, in 2021, after nearly two decades of experience at fashion houses in Milan and New York. A graduate of Istituto Marangoni, she began her career at Costume National and most recently served as vice-president of design at Rachel Comey before striking out on her own.
Her Brooklyn-based brand has become known for crochet dresses crafted in Jamaica and crystal mesh separates that Vogue describes as “demi-couture.” The label has earned Scott major industry recognition, including back-to-back CFDA Fashion Awards — Emerging Designer of the Year in 2023 and Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2024 — without ever staging a runway show.
That changes this season. Diotima will make its runway debut on September 15, while Proenza Schouler will present its spring 2026 collection, developed under Scott, in a presentation next week.
Balancing two brands is a challenge Scott welcomes. “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,” she told Vogue.
Her rapid rise has been matched by accolades across the industry. Scott was a runner-up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2023, a finalist for the 2023 LVMH Prize and the 2025 Woolmark Prize, and the recipient of the inaugural Frazier Family Foundation x CFDA Empowered Vision Award. Earlier this year, she also won the Fashion Trust US award for ready-to-wear.
