The Tamesis
Last September, just days before Proenza Schouler’s New York Fashion Week show, Rachel Scott was named creative director of the brand. But today’s show was her real start, the first collection she designed from start to finish after taking over from founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who left for Paris and had the chance to run Loewe. An impressive group of fellow designers, including Maria Cornejo, Calvin Klein’s Veronica Leoni and Luar’s Raul Lopez, were on hand to support Scott, who staged a show for his label Diotima in just four days.
Scott juggles two brands and may be the busiest designer at New York Fashion Week. Not surprisingly, she describes this season’s Proenza Schouler woman as “extremely punctual, always on time—but today she was late.” In a showroom preview, she explained how her vision differs from McCollough and Hernandez’s, going on to say, “I always feel like there’s this separation, like there’s a layer of glass between you and this woman you see, and she’s impeccable. She’s super perfect. And the idea of perfection is kind of scary to me.”
That’s fair enough. McCollough and Hernandez have long been part of New York’s fashion crowd, and their shows have always been the center of attention, with an effect that can be seductive or alienating. Scott was clearly eager to open the tent. “I wanted to give her more texture and complexity and a bit of an erotic feel, but it’s all my own creation,” she said.
The randomness she’s talking about isn’t necessarily obvious at first glance. The sleek sleeveless dress with a sculptural hem that opened the show, and the simple midi-skirt suit that followed, were both so perfectly blended and polished. But asymmetrical lapels on an ivory coat, skewed buttons that gave a draped, loose shape to a long-sleeved dress, and darts exposed on the outside of a bright red evening sheath all accumulated details that were off-kilter—perfectly imperfect. As for glimpses of eroticism, they came through the blooming folds under the cutaway hips of a skirt or the flash of skin exposed by the ruffled slits on the pants.
Scott’s crochet expertise at Diotima paid off at Proenza; a Donegal-knit double-breasted skirt suit with a puffy ruffle at the back offered a sweet novelty, and a figure-hugging ribbed-knit polo dress was sexy. The earthy sensibility she aimed for is most vividly expressed in the final orchid print. Scott grows orchids. Here, a photograph of delicate flowers at night is hand-drawn and then printed “so you can see the sloppy edges of the photo at the hem of the dress”. “I love the play between Proenza’s hands and numbers,” she says. Scott quickly researched what the brand has stood for so far. As she puts down roots, she should be encouraged to unleash her wild spirit more.
