Proenza Schouler SS27 is a tell tale of New York through Rachel Scott's eyes Between softer silhouettes and the return of the PS1, the designer tries to figure out what the brand can become after McCollough and Hernandez

It is never easy to step into a brand immediately after its founders and creative directors have abandoned ship: the responsibilities are enormous, the creative vision is intrinsic to their personalities, and the audience is accustomed to associating the brand with the figures who shaped it over the years. And that is exactly what happened at Proenza Schouler, after the creative duo who founded the brand in 2002 – Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez – began a new chapter in the story of Loewe last year, and Rachel Scott took the reins of the New York brand. It comes as no surprise, then, that for this SS27 the city itself appears to be the muse and guiding thread of the entire collection, as the American-Jamaican designer also confessed to WWD in the post-show: «the New York woman reflects the city in some way, and in a sense they reflect each other.»

But the New York imagined by Scott is not necessarily the one of metropolitan clichés, nor a succession of easily recognisable references. It is rather a city made of friction, where seemingly incompatible elements end up working precisely because they are placed side by side – a melting pot, in short. This happens first and foremost with colour: black and cream, practically unavoidable in the New York wardrobe, are interrupted by red, bright yellow, sky blue and coral tones, often used without much concern for harmony. It is a palette that at times seems almost discordant, only to find its own equilibrium once the complete look is assembled – a reminder of Proenza Schouler's DNA.

The same principle returns in the silhouettes. Scott's woman does not seem particularly interested in being constrained by her clothes, and indeed many of the brand's more rigid codes are softened. Structured shoulders remain, but coexist with more pronounced hips, draping, pleats and volumes that move away from the body. The garments follow the figure without compressing it: a red and black dress seems almost to crumple against the surface, while the more fluid pieces open at the hem through ruffles and irregular panels.

Scott does not appear to want to dismantle Proenza Schouler's vocabulary, so much as to understand which key moments of the brand to celebrate without lapsing into nostalgia or quotationism. This is confirmed above all by the return of the PS1, one of the true It-bags of the New York 2010s, relaunched at precisely the moment when the aesthetic of the second decade of the 21st century is making its way back onto moodboards and into wardrobes. For this reason, SS27 feels less like a definitive statement than an exercise in positioning. Scott does not try to erase twenty-three years of history, but neither does she behave like the keeper of an archive. She brings back the PS1, retains a certain idea of tailoring and urban sophistication, but introduces a femininity that is less controlled, more tactile and decidedly less concerned with perfection.