Over the last month, Diotima’s Rachel Scott won American Womenswear Designer of the Year at the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards, where Zankov’s Henry Zankov was awarded Google Shopping American Emerging Designer of the Year, and Wiederhoeft’s Jackson Wiederhoeft was a runner-up of the 2024 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award.
The trio represents a new guard of designers paving the way for the future of American fashion.
In a panel discussion on day two of the WWD Apparel & Retail CEO Summit, Scott, Zankov and Wiederhoeft joined WWD style director Alex Badia to talk about their views on American fashion today, and the importance of craft, a strong point of view and forming relationships with customers.
Each started brands after cutting their teeth in the industry, working for other labels. Scott started her career at J.Mendel and then worked for Rachel Comey for eight-and-a-half years, ending as vice president of design before launching her label in 2021.
“I just found out I am the first Black woman to receive this award,” Scott said of the CFDA honor, adding that her journey would not have been possible without the likes of Tracy Reese, who also spoke at the summit, paving the way.
Wiederhoeft cut his teeth under mentor designer Thom Browne before launching his namesake label five years ago, and Zankov worked in the knitwear world for Donna Karan, Diane von Furstenberg and Jason Wu before founding his brand in 2020.
They agreed that American fashion is absolutely having a moment.
“What’s really interesting is that we’re all new, but we actually have a long path, whether on our own or with other brands. I think what’s really interesting is that there’s a fresh energy, but one that’s experienced,” Scott said of her peers, including Willy Chavarria and Raul Lopez of Luar, who both took home their second awards at the 2024 CFDA Awards.
“To continue what Rachel was saying, I feel there’s a community that’s very special right now. In the industry, there’s a lot of unique points of view. There’s a lot of camaraderie. There’s a lot of support. Everybody that won on Monday night, and everyone who’s part of CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund program — we are all together. I feel like there’s something new in the air right now, where everyone is supporting each other; everybody wants to win, and everybody wants to help,” Zankov added.
Later on in the conversation, the designers spoke about the importance of creating community among American designers. They each shared that they view their peers as allies to lean on, to ask questions of and to cheer for.
“There’s never this feeling of competition there. There shouldn’t be, because none of us are doing the same thing. It’s more just that we understand how difficult it is to have an independent brand in this crazy climate, and the only way we can do it is if we help each other,” Scott said.
Wiederhoeft also noted the excitement around creativity — “a new conversation around craftsmanship,” he said. “Which I think is something really important for New York, which maybe historically might be known as being more commercial. There’s a real joy and appreciation; people are really wanting to educate and understand more about that in New York.”
Speaking to American craftsmanship, Scott said it’s the foundation of what they all do. Each of their role models speaks to this idea — Helmut Lang for Zankov; Browne for Wiederhoeft, and Azzedine Alaïa for Scott.
Although the understanding of savoir faire has historically been more closely associated with European designers and houses, Scott noted that American designers have the chance to be “really radical in what we’re doing,” while working outside of that realm.
“What’s also special about what’s happening right now is that we’re all so different. We have the same reverence and respect for craft, but we’re not trying to do something that has existed before. We’re trying to really put our point of view forward. We’re trying to push our communities forward in a way that feels very authentic. I don’t like to throw that word around, but it really is true to who we are and I think that is the difference that’s changing things,” Scott said.
Zankov agreed that in addition to craft, an authentic point of view is key to longevity, which can also be seen through the theatrical way Wiederhoeft puts on his shows, often in multiple acts filled with choreographed characters.
“It’s exciting to see the clothes in a new context. I think most people who engage in the Wiederhoeft community are drama club oriented — that’s my origin story for fashion. I think a lot of people appreciate seeing the clothes in new lights and letting them perform,” Wiederhoeft said.
The power of sensuality, too, is a shared point of view that Scott, Zankov and Wiederhoeft each whip into their own visions.
“For me, everything starts with desire,” Scott said. “Through the process of making, but also for the person experiencing the world and experiencing the clothes, there needs to be this level of desire.”
Scott added that she thinks about sensuality quite literally.
“I think there is a sensuality to something made by hand, quite literally. And that because of that, there is merit to the clothes. It’s not disposable. It has spirit. It has this energy, it has this sensuality. You feel the desire through experiencing it,” Scott said, adding that she and Zankov, who are close friends, talk about this often.
“There’s a real desire for sensuality right now. I don’t know if it’s our projection of this kind of cyber world we’ve lived in over the last few years in the pandemic, but we really need this human connection,” she said.
“There’s so much stuff out there as we know but this idea of creating something new, creating a visual language, and creating something that has a strong foundation — something that has a point of view, but also can be fluid and change with time, but can also withstand the test of time” is key, Zankov said. “I have my own visual language. We all have our own visual language, and we’re also different. But if you have a really strong foundation as a designer, as a brand, that can really take you forever really far.”
Meanwhile, Wiederhoeft was donning a pair of black trousers featuring bead-embellished hand prints across the buttocks — one of the bestselling pieces of his fall runway collection.
“There’s a lot of desire for specificity that I’m really interested in,” Wiederhoeft said. While early in his career he was thinking about designing pieces people would want on a certain line sheet price point, now he’s homing in on his fantasy-driven pieces that his customers are drawn to.
“For my brand, the more niche I get, the stronger the product gets, because it’s more personal, it’s more honest to the vision,” he said.
Rachel Scott, Jackson Wiederhoeft and Henry Zankov.
Katie Jones/WWD
In addition to curating their own vision, each designer spoke about the importance of trunk shows for building relationships with customers.
“You learn so much from [seeing customers try on clothes in person] — how long a sleeve needs to be, how long a skirt needs to be. What works, what doesn’t work, different body types. Building a relationship with the customer, who they actually are — it’s so fascinating to me,” Zankov said. “Going back to seduction and desire and I’m going to add another word in there, intimacy. I think everyone is craving so much intimacy, and so shopping in person, shopping at a store; shopping in a trunk show, and having these kind of intimate connections —- it feels so urgent and so important right now.”
Wiederhoeft agreed that there’s “nothing more informative as a designer than putting a garment on a customer,” he said. Scott noted that since meeting customers at trunk shows, she’s been able to welcome them into her NYC studio when they come to town.
In order to continue cultivating these relationships and bridge them to direct-to-consumer business, Zankov said it’s about being conscious — he has handwritten notes for customers who buy something on his website. Wiederhoeft added that he utilizes private appointments as an opportunity to educate potential customers.
“That lets people into the world in a really nice way, where you can describe all the details and they can make a choice for themselves,” Wiederhoeft said.
“I don’t have brick-and-mortar, but I do have a studio. Continually, I keep opening my studio for people to come in and shop, because I think it’s so much nicer to look at the macramé, crochet and lace because it’s in person to touch and feel,” Scott added.
Each of the three designers has had a strong year. While they might be a little exhausted physically, their love of design rages on.
The drive and excitement “overrides all the fear, it overrides the fatigue,” Zankov said, noting that to be in this industry “you have to be a little delusional.”
“Yes, we’re tired; yes, we work like crazy, but the train has left the station and it’s going really fast. We’re not going to stop, so we have to just continue feeding this kind of fire in a way. I think that excitement is what drives us,” he said.
Scott agreed, saying, “It is a pure delusion and insane, maniacal obsession and love with what we do that actually just keeps us going, keeps us alive really, because it’s not a a healthy situation, but we’ll rest later — in 20 years.”
Speaking of the future, Scott, Wiederhoft and Zankov want to build their brands’ worlds and do it all.
For Wiederhoeft, this means working on his feature film; mood boarding a brick-and-mortar store; continuing to hold appointments in his Garment District showroom, and introducing a home goods category in February. For Zankov, it’s about expanding beyond his well-known knitwear collections with more tailoring and wovens to round out the full wardrobe; continuing to dabble in home furnishings, and working to open a brick-and-mortar store with a potential community-driven studio attached.
Scott’s working with filmmakers; wants brick-and-mortar and has dreams of opening a foundation in Jamaica, similar to Fondazione Prada in Milan, where film and Third World cinema — “revolutionary film from Africa and the Caribbean in the ‘70s,” can be shown locally.
“It needs to also be a place where people can learn craft. I’m so invested in savoir faire and it’s at risk of being lost, the knowledge. Any way that I can continue that through education is important. But, yeah, I want to make a fragrance. I want everything. I want to be a global luxury business,” Scott said.