Diotima RTW Spring 2024

Booth Moore
·2 min read

LVMH Prize finalist and CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund nominee Rachel Scott is making an impressive mark with her Jamaican-born artisanal luxurywear line Diotima, which held its spring presentation at New York Fashion Week on Monday.

Founded in 2021, Diotima has already been stocked by Bergdorf Goodman, Moda Operandi and McMullen, among others. While she first gained attention for her extraordinary sculptural crochet pieces, constructed from overlapping panels covering the body almost like sea creatures, she has since expanded that hand embellishment to tailoring, shirting and other everyday wardrobing pieces. She’s also committed to regular artist collaborations.

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For spring, she collaborated with contemporary Jamaican artist Laura Facey, best known for her sculpture “Redemption Song,” which serves as Jamaica’s national monument to the emancipation from lavery.

For the collection, Scott turned Facey’s chalk drawing “Seed” into a print on a cotton caftan. Facey also made miniature versions of her wood-carved hearts, which were worn as accessories.

“Every piece has the hand, but it’s not only the crochet, there are pieces with fagoting stitches and even the machine knits have crystal embellishment,” said the designer, who lives in New York but works with artisans in her native Jamaica.

The result was an ever-growing Diotima wardrobe, with subtle crochet flourishes on easy pinstripe suiting, shirting and khaki trousers; drapey tanks and other everyday knits with seed crystal embellishment making for a casual, cool collection full of next-level crochet, and sheer knits, a key trend for spring.

“In Jamaica, crochet is a tradition passed down from grandmothers or aunties to daughters. I didn’t actually experience that and because of that I had a weird fascination with it,” Scott said, explaining that she actually learned to crochet much later in life. “I started my career in Italy and there is a real respect for craft there and it left a lasting mark on me, it’s something I’m always trying to incorporate or do in a modern way.”

With this collection, she wanted to expand her vision and her community. “That’s something I want to keep doing, finding ways to incorporate other creative voices from the Caribbean.” She also added a small offering of footwear, bags and jewelry.

“I’d like to be a part of and support expanding the Caribbean basin, and trying to do collaborations and build fashion and culture within the region,” she said. “Even in this presentation, I had five Jamaican models, and some of them were not within my budget, but they wanted to be in the show to support.”

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Launch Gallery: Diotima RTW Spring 2024

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