Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

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DEIRDRE LEWIS
Photography by DEIRDRE LEWIS

RACHEL SCOTT

DESIGNER, DIOTIMA

The CFDA-endorsed creative director of Diotima funnels the visual culture of her native Jamaica into Caribbean-inspired garments and artfully advocates for a definition of luxury beyond the European canon.

WHAT IS YOUR TRADEMARK? Sensual craft.

WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? Whenever I feel I need grounding, or I need to return to my foundation, I always go back to Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire. It can and should be read and reread; it is always timely and urgent.

"Does the thing I am making add value to the world in some way?"

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF? I want to see more kindness, more community, and more love in the industry, especially amongst and towards independent brands. We are in a terrifying moment of erasure, particularly of voices of communities that have always been excluded or erased. We have to support and lift each other up, now more than ever.

WHAT QUESTION DO YOU ASK YOURSELF MOST OFTEN WHILE YOU’RE MAKING WORK? Does the thing I am making add value to the world in some way? If something feels like it already exists, then there is no reason to make it. Every single piece in a collection needs to feel like it is adding beauty or subversion in some way, hopefully both! To add to beauty in a real way is to question beauty; it is in itself a subversive move.

WHAT DO YOU WANT NEXT FOR YOURSELF ABOVE ALL ELSE? To never stop growing creatively, to never stop challenging myself through the work. For Diotima, I want longevity.

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