At Diotima’s spring presentation, the room was set with bunches of lit red candles set on top of sand and concrete blocks like so many little altars. The models came out and circled the tableau, round and around like an incantation. It’s not that anyone needs the help of the supernatural to fall in love with Rachel Scott’s vision of womanhood, but the effect was hypnotizing. Her signature crochet dresses, sinuously showing skin underneath all manner of sequins, paillettes, and other embellishments were present—a standout included an intarsia knit dress with swooping shapes in cream and wine that she had physically mapped out on a model’s body so it perfectly enveloped the wearer. Unfortunately this look, along with many other terrific pieces that walked at the presentation, were not included in this season’s lookbook.
That’s because this season it was Scott’s vision for the everyday that took center stage.
Following her collections throughout the years, it has been exciting to see the way that she has slowly and carefully expanded the diversity of her offerings, while fine tuning her design vocabulary in the process. It is both a natural creative instinct and a way to make her pieces accessible to wider audience. “So many of the things I do are time-consuming and intricate and therefore expensive, and I want to find a way to do things in a more approachable way,” she said at her presentation while a line of well-wishers waited for the chance to speak or take a selfie with her. “I love combining crochet with wovens—there’s always this fluidity and an undoneness and I wanted to find a way to do that in new materials.” See the loose-fitting jeans with delicate broderie anglaise insets on the legs; a finely woven cotton shirt with an elastic waistband for a slight balloon effect; a terrific suit with a high-low hem—inspired by the classic Morning Coat shape—which she paired with drop crotch wide-leg Bermuda shorts. Scott melted metallic paillettes and used them to embellish the edges of a wrap linen skirt, which she paired with a very thin striped turtleneck—its high collar made from crochet. Another draped dress in mint green and gray super fine Japanese jersey had a black crochet appliqué on one side. It evoked the ocean in the swaying curves of the material and yet felt approachable because of the familiarity of its material.