Diotima's Fall 2026 Campaign Brings Wifredo Lam's Art to a Jamaican Plantation
Diotima, the New York label founded by Rachel Scott, has released its fall 2026 advertising campaign in collaboration with the estate of Wifredo Lam, the Cuban painter whose work fused Afro-Cuban symbolism, Caribbean spirituality and European modernism. Scott told WWD that Lam's artwork was meaningful to her and to the fall 2026 collection it accompanies. She described Lam as "one of the most influential artists on me" (Fashionista).
The campaign drew on two pieces from Lam's "Femme Cheval" series — a figure Scott characterised as a woman who is part human, part horse, mystical, erotic and powerful. "She is also the Diotima woman," Scott said (WWD). Diotima has described the femme cheval as both human and divine, a counter-image to colonial fantasy (Photobook Magazine). The collaboration between Diotima and the Lam estate began with the autumn-winter 2026 runway show in February (Wallpaper).
Jamaican artist Luca Khouri photographed the campaign at the end of March, with styling by Marika-Ella Ames. The shoot took place over several days at what was once the largest operating plantation in Jamaica. Three models appear in the images: Romae Gordon, Breana Carson and Julie Soimaud. Gordon has walked both the Diotima and Proenza Schouler runways — Scott is creative director of both labels. A short film accompanies the still photographs.
The campaign will run across social media platforms, Scott's website and several print publications. Lam, born in Cuba in 1902, is recognised as one of the major painters of the 20th century, his work carrying a political and cultural consciousness shaped by his mixed Chinese, African and European heritage and his time in both Havana and Paris.
What gives the campaign its pull is the layers of place. Lam's paintings drew on Caribbean spiritual traditions; Scott shot his imagery on Jamaican soil that carries its own history of colonial labour. The "Femme Cheval" — the horse-woman — becomes both a figure in a frame and a body standing on the grounds of a former plantation. Nothing in the images needs to explain that collision. It is visible.
