It’s unbelievable to assume that Rachel Scott launched Diotima somewhat over 4 years in the past. Since then she has been named a runner-up on the 2023 version of the CFDA/Vogue Style Fund—the identical 12 months that she gained the CFDA award for Rising Designer. She gained the CFDA Womenswear Designer award the next 12 months. Then, simply three weeks in the past, Scott was introduced as the brand new artistic director at Proenza Schouler, following the departure of the label’s founders: she confirmed her terrific debut for the label two days in the past. Right now she took Diotima to the runway for the primary time, delivering a set that vindicated her swift rise but additionally made it plain that she’s actually simply getting began. (Sure, these color-blocked pumps, embellished sandals, and minimal thongs had been a part of her personal shoe assortment launching within the spring.)
Inside a cavernous area in Greenpoint, with the partitions haphazardly collaged in silver paper and paint, we heard the murmur of a crowd and the sounds of metal pans first. A mannequin walked out in a white crochet tank over a white bandeau high, matching white crochet balloon trousers layered beneath a skirt with cascading ruffles, and a crochet hood over her head. Her face was smeared with silver powder throughout her temples and into her hair. Scott was taking us to carnival for spring.
“Final fall I used to be tremendous offended—and I’m nonetheless offended, however the manifestation of it is rather completely different,” she stated just a few days earlier than her present at her Chinatown studio. “I used to be taking a look at carnival within the Caribbean and the diaspora as this second of resistance towards repressive forces. It’s a second of resistance that’s rooted in exuberance, pleasure, and sensuality, and is towards any type of domination.” Particularly, she appeared to the carnival in Trinidad, and to the characters that inhabit it for inspiration. “It’s one more reason we needed to do a runway, as a result of a carnival is a procession—it’s a storm by the area,” she added. However you gained’t discover any literal interpretations of conventional costumes. Scott as an alternative zeroed in on the completely different particulars that distinguish them: unusual coloration pairings like guava and lime inexperienced or neon pink and grey; and the overall shapes and silhouettes of the costumes. She transposed all of them into fashionable garments that ladies can—and extra crucially *will—*put on out of their actual lives. From the Child Doll got here a brief sleeve jacket with a tonal melted paillette trim and a pink skirt made out of faux feathers with a contrasting macrame “peplum” across the waist. The sailor character who typically leads the processions led to sq. sailor collars appeared in sudden locations, like on matte jersey tops with a tubular chenille trim that undulated across the physique—certain to be one of many iconic items of the season.
However Scott had essentially the most enjoyable when she took on the standard carnival cage bras, which nearly utterly naked the physique whereas concurrently molding and outlining. She transposed the bras into tailor-made jackets with extra-deep portrait collars paired with broad leg trousers, all teeming with intercourse enchantment and energy. She additionally launched bikinis and luxe long-sleeve swimwear in her signature micro-sequin design. Elsewhere, conventional feathers had been mimicked by “shredded rayon bits” that got here alive because the fashions walked by the area. Scott has by no means been one to shrink back from exhibiting the physique in her designs; carnival offered the right framework wherein to push herself in direction of new territory.
“Carnival is tremendous sensual,” Scott stated. “It’s a really erotic second within the public sphere and it type of resists any type of heteronormativity.” Midway by the present, the sound of Yoko Ono’s moaning within the throes of ardour (taken from one of many tracks on John and Yoko’s album Double Fantasy, “Kiss Kiss Kiss”) crammed the room—it was cheeky and it did ship electrical currents all through the viewers because the orgasmic sounds turned extra apparent. After the present ended, one other designer who was in attendance stated, “That was so nice—women having enjoyable!” We had been.
