Rachel Scott of Diotima Named American Womenswear Designer of the Year
Rachel Scott, the designer behind the label Diotima, was named American Womenswear Designer of the Year at the 2026 CFDA Fashion Awards on 2 November. The honours were presented at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Scott is also creative director of Proenza Schouler, the New York fashion label.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, known as the CFDA, is the trade body that runs the awards. Lupita Nyong'o presented the womenswear prize to Scott, according to WWD. Scott won the CFDA's Emerging Designer of the Year award in 2024. Earlier this year she also designed a flag for the U.S. Virgin Islands, part of Vogue and the CFDA's United Flags of Fashion project.
The menswear prize went to Ralph Lauren, the American company known for its polo-pony logo. Matt Damon presented it. Ana Khouri won the Accessories Designer of the Year award, presented by the tennis player Naomi Osaka and the designer Joseph Altuzarra. Colleen Allen took the Google American Emerging Designer of the Year award. Google, the technology company, sponsors that category.
Anthony Vaccarello received the International Designer of the Year Award. Tory Burch was honoured with the Positive Change Award. Susan Cianciolo received a tribute from the board of directors of the Isabel Toledo award, named after the late designer. Linda Fargo won the Founder's Award, which honours Eleanor Lambert, who started the CFDA's fashion week and awards tradition in the 1960s and 1970s.
Several honours went to people who work behind the camera or on the business side. Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, the photographers and image-makers, received the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award. Eva Chen received the Media Award, named for the fashion writer Eugenia Sheppard. Gap Inc., the clothing company behind Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, received the Innovation Award presented by Amazon Fashion. Richard Dickson and Zac Posen accepted it for the company.
The awards were first announced in the autumn. Scott, Tory Burch and Wes Gordon, of Carolina Herrera, had been named as the 2026 womenswear nominees. Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne, Todd Snyder and Willy Chavarria were among the menswear nominees, according to the CFDA.
Scott's win puts a designer who runs two labels at the centre of the evening. It also puts her name beside a long list of people who make, sell and photograph clothes, from the designers on stage to the executives thanked for their companies' work. The awards are voted on and presented by the industry, and the presenters were a mix of actors, athletes and designers, which reflects how far the event now reaches beyond the fashion trade.
