Since 2002, Proenza Schouler has been New York Fashion Week's pre-eminent destination for downtown women with an elevated minimalist streak. Kendall Jenner frequently guest-stars on its runways; cool girls like Chloë Sevigny, Ayo Edebiri, and Sofia Richie-Grainge often sit in its front row. Now, the brand is set to be led by the type of woman it dresses.
On September 2, the brand announced Diotima designer Rachel Scott is the incoming creative director. She replaces founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who were appointed to helm Loewe earlier this summer. Line Sheet, a fashion insider favorite newsletter published by Puck, first hinted at the appointment earlier this summer.
Rachel Scott's official portrait as creative director of Proenza Schouler.
Scott has steadily become an industry favorite during her time at Diotima, a crochet-forward label that fuses her Jamaican heritage with New York City tailoring. The two-piece sets and netted dresses she's created since 2021 are carried everywhere from Moda Operandi to Bergdorf Goodman, and she has amassed fans including Katie Holmes, Natasha Lyonne, and Laura Harrier. Last year, she received the CFDA's prestigious Womenswear Designer of the Year award.
She was also featured as one of ten designers in Marie Claire's 2024 Craftsmanship Issue. Speaking with fashion features editor Emma Childs, Scott mentioned that every item she designs has an "element of the hand" and a refreshingly cross-cultural perspective. "I work with crochet artisans in Jamaica, I work with tailors in New York City, and I work with embellishment and other hand techniques in India. This freedom and re-evaluation of value is very exciting," she said.
Scott opened Diotima in 2021.
The incoming Proenza Schouler designer will have time to develop her vision for the label. She still planning to show a Diotima collection at New York Fashion Week this fall; her first full Proenza Schouler collection will debut next spring, for the Fall 2026 season.
“Rachel brings a fresh and female perspective to a brand built on the spirit of the modern American woman,” Proenza Schouler CEO Shira Suveyke Snyder said in a press release first shared in Business of Fashion. “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.”
In 2024, she was named the Womenswear Designer of the Year by the CFDA.
Scott's appointment comes at a time when fashion leadership is in flux—and not always representative of the women it dresses. Over the past year, a cascade of resignations and re-assignments caused shake-ups at several major houses across Europe, including Chanel, Dior, Valentino, and Bottega Veneta. Only the latter appointed a female designer, Louis Trotter.
On the New York Fashion Week schedule, Veronica Leoni's promotion to creative director at Calvin Klein Collection similarly drew headlines last year. She's the first woman to lead the all-American label; she's also part of a small cohort of women at the top of a major NYC-based brand.
Scott's signatures include netted dresses and two-piece sets with shell embellishments.
Creating clothing that women love to wear doesn't depend on a specific gender identity, of course. But with most agenda-setting labels excluding women from leadership roles, seeing an appointment like Scott's sends a strong message. Now, the countdown is on until her first direction-setting collection.
