Rachel Scott, founder and creative director of Diotima, has released the company’s fall ad campaign, which is a collaboration with the estate of Wilfredo Lam, whose art was shaped by Afro-Cuban symbolism, Caribbean spirituality, and European modernism and carries a political and cultural consciousness.
On Friday, Scott told WWD how meaningful Lam’s artwork was to her and her fall ’26 collection. “He’s one of the most influential of my work and my life. The show was so special, and we kept thinking we needed to continue to honor this really important moment for me and my life and my work,” said the Jamaican-born Scott. She said she worked with two pieces from his “Femme Cheval” collection.
“I was really drawn to this image of the ‘Femme Cheval,’ who is this woman who is like maybe part human, part horse, mystical. She’s quite erotic and powerful. And it escapes definition, escapes control and domination. And she really was a figure that stuck with me,” said Scott.
“And she is also the Diotima woman, quite honestly, and I realized that with this collaboration, we really wanted to try and capture her in a way that more people could have access to because the show was so special, but it was an ephemeral moment, and not a lot of people got to experience how magical that was,” she said.
An image from Diotima’s fall campaign.
Courtesy of Diotima
Scott hired Luca Khouri, a Jamaican artist, to photograph the campaign at the end of March, which was styled by Marika-Ella Ames. It was shot at what was once the largest operating plantation in Jamaica. “Already the collection was so charged with these moments of history that keep kind of echoing, and his [Lam’s] work was very anti-imperialist and very anti-colonial and so it felt kind of right to reclaim this land that had this history that we did not have control over.”
Scott said the set was interesting, as there were ghost stories on the shoot. She worked with three models, one of whom was Romae Gordon, who was in both the Diotima and Proenza Schouler shows (of which Scott is also creative director). She also worked with Breana Carson and Julie Soimaud. They also did a short film accompanying the campaign.
In the campaign, it’s more the model interacting with the world, but the film is more introspective and her dealing with her histories. “It’s very powerful,” said Scott.
The campaign, which was shot over several days, will appear on social media platforms, the designer’s website, and in several print publications.
