Rachel Scott Knows Exactly Why She Got the Job at Proenza Schouler

Rachel Scott was not supposed to be the new creative director of Proenza Schouler. At least, that’s how she tells it. The day before her official debut for the brand at New York Fashion Week on February 11, Scott hops on a Zoom. At this point, she’s had the lead role for about seven months, but she has no problem backing up and rehashing the story.

“My name was one of the first that came up, but because I have my own brand, [Diotima,] they were like, ‘That won’t work, so let’s look for someone else.’” The Jamaica-born designer is paraphrasing for Shira Suveyke Snyder, Proenza Schouler’s chief executive officer, who joined in October 2024, just weeks before founders and former creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez left to take over at Loewe. Suveyke Snyder conducted an extensive search to no avail. (“It’s such a unique brand,” says Scott of Proenza. “It’s American, but it’s global.”) The CEO reached out to Scott’s predecessor, Kay Hong—who’s also her mentor from the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund—asking if Scott might lend a hand for the spring collection. She was all in.

“I don’ t often get to design and not think about things like cash-flow logistics, legal issues, and wholesale partnerships,” Scott says. “It was a nice opportunity to do something creative, just for a short term.” Of course, the irony is, a month into this “temporary” position, it became much more permanent when Suveyke Snyder approached Scott with the formal offer. She was the new creative director of Proenza Schouler, a bona fide New York brand, known for its craft, innovative fabrics, and artful silhouettes, and beloved by some of the most stylish women on this side of the Atlantic.

On Wednesday, Scott showed her official-official follow-up to that studio collaboration from last season. The front row was filled with New York’s preeminent designers, including Christopher John Rogers, Calvin Klein’s Veronica Leoni, and Luar’s Raul Lopez, who took in the collection alongside Olivia Munn, Grace Gummer, and director Celine Song. On the runway, Scott stayed true to Proenza’s legacy of “color, precision, and craft,” as she said in her show notes—while expanding into a new, woman-led world.

Why do you think you’re the right fit for this role?

It’s a combination of very specific things from my career and my life, which makes me a uniquely good fit for it. I have worked in New York for 15 years and I’ve worked in the industry for almost 20 years. Because my career began in Europe, I have a global perspective and a European foundation combined with knowledge of the American market and workplace. Also, I have a real love of craft and a real love for making clothes for women, two things the boys [Hernandez and McCollough] also have.

You collaborated with the studio team on Proenza Schouler’s spring 2026 collection. Did that process help with your transition into the creative director role?

It did, in a few ways. When we first started, I spent a week looking at pieces on the body from the entirety of the almost 25 years of the brand. It was nice to have the time to luxuriously investigate the history like that. It helped me understand the codes, the construction, the materials, who the Proenza woman is. It helped me to understand where I could bring it forward to the next iteration of the brand. If I were given the job mid-August without the collaboration, I never would have had that time.

Have you spoken to Hernandez and McCollough?

Yes. When I was approached about the role, I spoke with them and it was really nice. Speaking to other designer founders of brands, learning what they loved and cherished about the brand, the business, the teams, the things they found challenging—that’s all so fascinating.

Every brand feels personal to its founders, but Proenza Schouler has always felt especially personal, maybe because it is named after Hernandez’s and McCollough’s mothers. You are the first person to design for the brand outside of that duo. What is it like to enter someone else’s space, especially as a founder yourself?

No one can be someone else and no one can speak in someone else’s language. It’s more about understanding their motivations and what they were trying to achieve and then understanding how I can bring that about with my language and my hand. I have so much respect for what they did that it’s almost exciting to try and do a tribute to it, especially last season. Now, it’s about taking the legacy forward.

We’ve now seen a collection from you and a campaign, but I would love to hear in your words, what does Rachel’s Proenza Schouler look like?

There are lots of things that remain, and there are things that have shifted. And even the things that remain are transformed in some way. I think some of the codes are going to be very clear, like strong use of color. It’s energetic. There’s a view of craft that’s very modern: a play between craft, the hand, digital, and a dialogue between the three.

The woman is still very put together, but I think the biggest shift that everyone will see is that we’re getting a lot closer to her. I think Jack and Lazaro have so much admiration for women, but there was always a bit of distance. That’s just the nature of them being men, honestly. As a woman, I can remove that separation and really get into her world.

Were you hesitant at all to take on a second brand? Did you ever consider putting Diotima on pause?

I’m sure [the Proenza Schouler team] had their fears that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but Diotima is not something I’m willing to pause or give up. It’s too important to me. I spent too long waiting to do it, and I can handle it.

Is there any interaction between the two brands, or will they remain completely siloed?

They’re fairly siloed because they come from very different places in me. Diotima is a personal, political brand. It’s rooted in the Caribbean and it’s anti-imperialist. Plus, the craft foregrounds everything. About 60 percent of the collection is made by hand.

Proenza comes from the part of me that studied philosophy and French and is obsessed with film. There’s a different level of intellectual rigor, even though they’re both me.

The materials are different. The use of color and pattern is different. But I think my obsession with texture, my obsession with friction, comes through. That is my language. It’s just my language in different contexts.

So we shouldn’t expect crochet in your Proenza Schouler collections?

Not yet. Maybe later, but not right now.

You’re currently one of the only women, and the only Black woman, leading a major luxury women’s brand. What does that mean to you? Do you feel the pressure to represent?

It’s actually terrifying. It just points to what a horrible place we are in the world. And in my 20 years of working in this industry, seeing how it reflects the larger geopolitical atmosphere is disheartening. I have to give it to Shira, the guys, and the board for trusting in me because not many people would. But I shouldn’t be the only one. I feel a lot of responsibility, and I don’t like to disappoint. Even though I don’t really care what people say, honestly. I still feel the weight of it, especially right now.

Proenza Schouler is such a New York brand, and you now have two brands showing here. At a time when the New York fashion scene is looking slightly precarious, why is it important to you to remain here?

It sucks that people don’t want to come in February. I get it. It’s awful. It’s freezing. There are disgusting, biohazard piles of snow and ice. But there is something special happening right now. It’s not just me. My generation of designers coming up right now, we’re very supportive of each other. I have a little bit of that in Paris, but I have so much of that here, which has helped so much. Because this can be a very isolating position to be in, especially when you have an independent brand.

I love New York. I don’t think I could have done any of this anywhere else. There is this openness in New York. A lot of my peers supported me early on with Diotima, so I’m grateful to the people of New York and this industry.