Four J’can women who conquered fashion in 2025
Published:Sunday | January 11, 2026 | 12:10 AM
Four fascinating Jamaican women. One magnificent year of achievements.
As Sunday Lifestyle looks back on the year that was, international designers Rachel Scott and Grace Wales Bonner, avant-garde costume and production designer Anna-Lisa Guthrie, and SAINT International model Dru Campbell shone brightest in our fashion constellation.
Campion College grad Scott was a major player in the global fashion conversation last year.
The Diotima founder and creative director started 2025 as the Womenswear Designer of the Year winner of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards from the previous November. She was nominated again last year, but Ralph Lauren was given the nod.
September brought newsmaking moments for Scott, who read for a degree in art and philosophy at Colgate University and graduated from the Istituto Marangoni Milano fashion school in 2007.
She was announced as the newly installed creative director of iconic American womenswear label Proenza Schouler, and also staged her first runway show for Diotima at New York Fashion Week to much acclaim from fashion critics.
“My debut collection [for Proenza Schouler] will be in February. Diotima is a very personal brand, rooted in my Jamaican heritage. It is very sensual and rebellious. Proenza Schouler has incredibly strong brand codes that I will evolve but will always be rooted in a polished, elevated point of view and a precision of execution,” Scott remarked during an interview last year.
Also making waves was British-Jamaican designer Grace Wales Bonner, who was named the new creative director of Hermès Menswear, taking over from Véronique Nichanian, the artistic director of Hermès Menswear for the last 37 years. The appointment of Wales Bonner, a co-chair of the 2025 Met Gala, saw the designer manifest the dream job she told System Magazine in 2019 that she could see herself in.
“It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in the lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers,” Bonner, who founded her well-regarded eponymous label 11 years ago after graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art, said in an official statement. She will present her first collection for the house in January 2027, continuing to Wales Bonner alongside her new role.
Checking in on a FaceTime call from Paris, SAINT’s Campbell — who, along with Guthrie, separately copped The Prime Minister’s Youth Awards for Excellence in Arts and Culture — ruminated on her milestone-stacked year.
“I would describe my 2025 as outstanding experiences since with every accomplishment, I learnt something new,” reflected the model star who won her agency’s Female Fashion Face of the Caribbean title in 2024. “Whether it was co-fronting a major campaign for Dior or making Models.com Top 50, last year was really fun and had so many great opportunities for me.”
She was proud to be Model No. 1 in the Off-White Spring/Summer 2026 show at New York Fashion Week last September. It was her debut in the North American metropolis’ seasonal fashion cycle. “[That] show meant a lot to me since it was my first time opening a show. It was also an amazing experience working with the genius team of IB Kamara and stylist Nell Kalonji.”
For 2026, the fast-rising fashion star, who was between the pages of the December edition of American Vogue and in the Autumn/Winter ad campaign for Alexander McQueen, said her to-do list will naturally include stomping the Fashion Week runways in New York, Milan, and Paris. “On the personal side, I would like to do more studying and learning about the fashion business. Also, I would like to do a few major campaigns this year as well.”
Meanwhile, eyes were peeled on social media and talk, most favourable, as Guthrie brought her wildly inventive fashion creations to life.
From soap bars to phonebooks, car parts to cardboard, rope to paper towels, the designing creative who kept her 107,000 followers transfixed yearlong, gave fresh meaning to Madonna’s Material Girl.
Speaking with Sunday Lifestyle, Guthrie described the year 2025 as “a blessing”. “I’d describe it as a testament to what can happen if you continue to persevere and tackle your goals despite doubt or circumstance,” she shared.
Asked what three career moments meant the most to her in 2025, she lists three major milestones.
“Winning the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture. It’s something I’ve wanted for quite some time and something I talked myself out of for many years, so receiving it in this time was very special,” said Guthrie, adding designing for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival under SPIRIT Mas and her appointment as Yard Mas creative director to the list.
Appointed to the Yard Mas role in October, she oversaw the band’s Galleria unveiling in December. As 2026 gets started, top of her personal and professional to-do list is a simple action: “More.”