Back in November, Rachel Scott’s Diotima won the CFDA’s American Womenswear Designer of the Year award, taking home a $100,000 grant for her brand. Now, she’s at New York Fashion Week with her first collection since then, turning beauty into a, as the words on the show wall read, “Diotima Matriarch.”
Backstage, wigs sat on stands, lining a black table with a book of photographs flipped open as a reference point. “When we were talking about matriarchs, I was thinking about [it as] such a significant part of hair,” hair stylist Joey George says. Channelling the Black matriarchs as seen through the lens of photographer Dawoud Bey, George pointed out the undoing of rollers, which sagged at various lengths throughout the hair.
“The whole idea is that this woman is a selfless woman,” he says as he looks at Bey’s work from the late 1980s and early ‘90s. “If you look through the work, they’re even doing hair at the kitchen table.” While marcel curlers, hot combs and hair grease may have been historically accurate, at Diotima, Oribe products were used to preserve the texture underneath each wig.
First, the Hair Alchemy Fortifying Treatment Serum and Royal Blowout Heat Styling Spray were used to prep the hair under each wig, from strengthening the braids and scalp underneath to stretching the texture and brushing into a wig wrap. Then, on the actual wigs, Maximista Thickening Spray was applied to give a grit, which was flat ironed into the hair before being finished with hairspray.
31 out of 32 of the wigs were dark-colored, however what George calls “one white rabbit” is a model with platinum hair. “She’s not positioned to be anywhere,” he says, like a black sheep. “She’s just kind of floating throughout, so it’s just something that’s a little off about it.”
While the hair defined what “Diotima matriarch” means in terms of sacrifice, the makeup and nails held all the rage suffocated by selflessness. “When [Rachel Scott] explained the direction, she dipped into rage,” makeup artist Kanako Takase says. “She wanted to express something to hold her anger.”
Burgundy-colored blushes (Addiction Tokyo’s The Blush was used on deeper skin tones) matched nail artist Naomi Yasuda’s manicures. Black paint was the look’s signature, however, painting what Takase described as a “petal” on the eyes to draw in the shiny small black roses seen in the collection. “[It] shows some strength in the face,” she says, adding lip oil to deepen the eyelids.
“We’ve been working on this probably since December after the CFDAs,” George adds. “We’re ready to press the gas, you know? It’s a big show.”
Below for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at how the Diotima FW25 NYFW glam came together.
