Diotima’s ‘Fever’ pitch
DAY FOUR of New York Fashion Week’s fall 2024 collections saw Jamaican-American fashion designer Rachel Scott presenting her creative vision for next season’s womenswear must-haves at a gallery space in Chelsea, Manhattan.
Scott’s three-year-old Diotima label, for which she secured the Emerging Designer of the Year win at last November’s Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards, has quickly established itself as an acclaimed name in the industry, with near-unanimous praise from fashion watchers and insiders. And, with her fall 2024 collection titled ‘Fever’, Scott signalled the continuation of a finessed approach to beautiful textural garments that deepen with each successive seasonal reveal of her wardrobe buildout for the modern woman.
But, there’s a new twist to the designer’s Diotima aesthetic: vivid colour. Trusty neutrals gave way to mango yellow here, and orange-pink there. “It feels exciting and I’m really happy to be able to show people what I’ve been working on,” the CFDA-winning Scott told The
Sunday Gleaner last Monday. The designer paused to talk amid the buzz of activity underway for her presentation on the ground floor of the glass-panelled space at West 27th Street in The Big Apple. Lithe models outfitted in Diotima’s fabulously tailored suiting and knitwear, fringed macramé skirts, and signature crochet dresses struck poses throughout the gallery as faithful devotees of the label milled about. Among the VIP guests was
Empire actress and singer Serayah, stunning in a trademark Diotima mesh dress, escorted by her rap star beau Joey Bada$$. There are, too, Scott’s American designer friends Christopher John Rogers and Henry Zankov, out to lend support. And fashion journalists from Vogue and
WWD, eager to have Scott’s take on inspiration and motivation.
As a dancehall soundtrack reverberated hypnotic beats of the latest from Jamaican deejays and waiters circled the room with trays of ten to one ruminfused cocktails, Scott explained the concept behind her new collection. “It’s really about the arc of a woman’s life through one day. It starts at 4 o’clock in the morning at the end of a session when light is coming up, and you’re a little bit undone. Then you go through the day and slowly come back together, and you’re finally at the party skinning out at the end of the night.”
Fabric-wise, she offered a breakdown of the collection’s pieces: “I worked on a lot of the materials and techniques I have been doing for a long time. Obviously, there’s crochet, but I really developed the macramé which is tightly knotted or made by hand and then it explodes into cascading fringes and little pom-poms of fringe. But there is also knitwear and winter clothing that speaks to who the Diotima woman is in the context of winter. It’s really about honing in on the language in all of the categories.”
Over the moon, and tearyeyed to see his designer daughter present her work was retired interior designer and project manager Noel Scott. Flying in from Kingston with his wife Ruth, a former boutique owner, for their little girl-turned-bigtime fashion name, the elder Scott disclosed: “It is probably one of the greatest experiences I will ever have to see her show for the first time after all these years. It’s gratifying to see her success and, although I’m not a part of it, it’s just her … she was always a go-getter as a child.” Scott said he’s immensely proud of his offspring’s recent CFDA win but loves most that she keeps her Diotima brand connected to her homeland. “My whole thing is the tie with Jamaica and the [crochet] craftswomen of Jamaica. Her mother and I took care of getting that done in Jamaica, so it’s gratifying to see it put together in an outfit. It’s unbelievable knowing where it’s coming from.”