Fashion designer Mary McFadden wearing a sleeveless gown with Fortuny-style pleating, belted at the waist.
Mary McFadden died Friday on Long Island.
There was always a lot going on below the surface, in her personal and professional life.
Fashion designer Mary McFadden wearing a sleeveless gown with Fortuny-style pleating, belted at the waist.
A romantic, McFadden was married a number of times.
Justine Harari, her daughter from her first union, died in June 2023.
The Philadelphia retrospective, Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden, justified a dive into the archive.
The designer with Diana Vreeland, 1983.
Its fair to say that McFadden has long been aVoguefavorite.
Back in Manhattan in 1970, McFadden became a special projects editor atVogue.
Diana Vreeland helped me enormously.
A pleated dress on display in “Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden” at Drexel University.
She was very warm and helpfula best friend, said the indefatigable designer.
The designer with Diana Vreeland, 1983.
A pleated dress on display in Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden at Drexel University.
A dress on display at “Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden” at Drexel University.
McFadden was a world-builder before the marketing term existed; she also built a brand around herself.
Yes, she wore her own clothes well, but it went deeper than that.
Her work was described as having the quality of romantic abstraction byVoguejournalist Jill Robinson in 1977.
A detail of a dress on display in “Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden” at Drexel University.
Im not a draping artist.
My construction is simple, flat, one-dimensional.
Im interested in limiting bulk, in a total spareness of finishing, said the designer at the time.
McFadden cutting a rug at Kate Moss’s 19th birthday party at the Sound Factory, 1993.
A dress on display at Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden at Drexel University.
A detail of a dress on display in Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden at Drexel University.
On the most elemental level, however, McFaddens designs centered around materials.
McFadden taking a bow at a charity fashion show, circa 1979.
McFaddens Delphos-like dresses were made using Marii, a proprietary heat-pleated synthetic fabric that she introduced in 1975.
Voguecredits the designer with transforming the way women dressed for evening in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
This was a time of soft dressing, and her longline dresses celebrated the natural body.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in Mary McFadden, at the opening of the “Glory of Russian Costume” exhibition at the Met, 1976.
Though not hippie-ish in the least, they tapped into the prevalent fantasy of other places and other times.
Free of constraints, McFaddens clothes were polished but comfortable, allowing for movement.
And womens lives were changing apace, both in boardrooms and in bedrooms.
The designer at the Costume Institute Gala in 1992.
A McFadden dress was as sensual as it was timeless.
As easy-on, easy-off for the evening as Diane von Furstenbergs wraps were for the day.
She was dubbed a design archaeologist by curator Harold Koda.
Model Iman and McFadden, photographed inside McFadden’s apartment.
Below, we excavate some fun facts about the designer.
1962
McFadden joins Christian Dior New York as director of public relations.
(Baby Jane Holzer was one of her bridesmaids.)
The designer at a 1998 CFDA event.
1968
Mrs. Harari invites experience.
She has no fear and little vanity, noted the writer of a 1968Vogueprofile.
Not only no fear but colossal nerve, said a friend.
At a movie premiere, 1992.
She is the person she is creating.
She hasnt the highest sensibilities, does the most outrageous things, and doesnt comprehend why youre shocked.
Then you realize youre shocked because youre conventional and shes not.
McFadden with Diane von Furstenberg, circa 1983.
She blazes her own trails, she thinks and decides for herself.
She dresses and decorates in a manner reminiscent of absolutely nobody.
In so doing, she is increasingly one of the most fascinating women in New York.
Photo: Courtesy of Drexel University
McFadden cutting a rug at Kate Mosss 19th birthday party at the Sound Factory, 1993.
McFadden taking a bow at a charity fashion show, circa 1979.
1973
She starts selling her designs at Henri Bendel and finds success quickly.
A detail of a coat on display in “Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden” at Drexel University.
I started with China silks.
I had them hand-painted, quilted, and pleated to give them a distinctive look.
I found the pleats really didnt hold.
Mary McFadden among J. Patrick Lannan’s collection, 1976. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images)
It took a man-made fabric to get really permanent pleats, she toldThe New York Times.
1976
She becomes president of Mary McFadden Inc. and wins her first Coty Award.
The designer at the Costume Institute Gala in 1992.
1977
Voguedeclares that, in three years, McFadden has practically changed the way women look at night.
And I am not just talking to women who follow fashion.
My friend Martha Stewart said recently, I saw Mary McFadden shopping.
She has very long arms and must be terribly strong.
It was wonderful to see.
She knew exactly what she wanted.
There is no question, in these past few years, Mary McFadden already has influenced what we wear.
She told me, I am going to be a mass designer.
And her terms are selectiveher requirement is excellence.
From New Orleans to Kansas City, they are wearing the coats and the gowns.
And in all of our homes, we are using and seeing art differently.
Art melds with craft.
1979
McFadden is entered into the Coty Award Hall of Fame and receives the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award.
Model Iman and McFadden, photographed inside McFaddens apartment.
The designer at a 1998 CFDA event.
At a movie premiere, 1992.
McFadden with Diane von Furstenberg, circa 1983.
Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFaddenis on view at Drexel University through October 11.
A detail of a coat on display in Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden at Drexel University.
Mary McFadden among J. Patrick Lannans collection, 1976.
(Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images)
This article adds to one published earlier in 2024.
