Diotima's Rachel Scott showcases new collection with J'can ties at NYFW
Published:Sunday | February 15, 2026 | 6:51 PM
Jamaican designer Rachel Scott presented her new womenswear collection for her critically adored brand Diotima today at New York Fashion Week (NYFW).
Scott's runway show on NYFW's closing day of the fall 2026 ready-to-wear season was a 34-look collection, drew inspiration from late Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, and included a collaboration with Refugee Atelier in New York.
Staying true to her Jamaican roots for the five-year-old brand, which gained fashion prominence for its use of Jamaican-crafted crochet in some of its sensual designs, Sunday's Diotima show at 111 Broadway in Manhattan had three Jamaican models in the cast, the pair of SAINT International's Naki Depass and Tami Williams, as well as former Pulse co-managing director Romae Gordon.
Front-row seated guests at the buzzed-about collection titled 'Femme Cheval' included legendary Jamaican sprinting icon Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, the First Lady of New York Rama Duwaji — wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, womenswear designer Christopher John Rogers, Grammy-winning R&B singer Monica, and influential stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who was seated between Fraser-Pryce and Duwaji.
"This collection takes shape in a political and cultural moment marked by exhaustion and division, where resilience, identity and memory become acts of resistance," Scott explained in the show's notes. "It is about the woman who moves through life with radiance, force and radical self-definition."
Fine-gauge merino knit, hand-applied organza intrarsia, gobelin jacquard, and digital prints on wool-silk canvas were among the defining flourishes in Scott's fresh approach for her collection.
The Jamaican creative, who won the Council of Fashion Designers of America Emerging Designer of the Year Award in 2023 and American Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2024, pulled double duty at NYFW.
Before her latest Diotima unveiling, last Wednesday, she showed her debut collection for the American womenswear and accessories brand Proenza Schouler, for which she was appointed creative director last September.