Mary McFadden
(1938 - )
Mary Mcfadden was born in New York City on October 1, 1938. Mcfadden studied at the Ecole Lubec and the Sorbone, in Paris, from 1955 to 1957. In 1957 she returned to New York and attended New York’s Traphagen School of Design , before taking a sociology degree at
Columbia University. In 1962, McFadden began working as the director of public relations for Dior New York, until 1965. She and her family moved to South Africa, where McFadden worked as a journalist for Rand Daily Mail and Vogue South Africa.
Mcfadden returned to the United States in 1970, and worked as a special projects editor for American Vogue. During her stay in South Africa, she had designed clothes for herself made of African prints and Oriental silks and combined them with designer pieces, creating an eclectic and exotic look. Vogue featured McFadden's tunic creations, simple shapes showing her characteristic love of color and print worn over silk Chinese pants, which offered the comfort of natural fabrics. Geraldine Stutz, president of Henri Bendel, liked them and bought them for the store. McFadden started her own designing and manufacturing business in 1973. She founded Mary McFadden Inc. in 1976, and began designing evening gowns in pleated silk using a unique "Marii" technique, resembling that used by Mariano Fortuny, which she patented in 1975.
In 1970, McFadden launched a line of less expensive clothes; which maintained their exotic feeling through the use of hand-painting on challis and suede, macramé yokes, quilting, and grosgrain ribbon binding. It included quilted kimono-shaped jackets, flowing silk or chiffon trousers topped by loose togas made of stylized batik prints depicting Indonesian flowers and dragons; themes she was to repeat in a more luxurious manner in the fall of 1992. In 1995, McFadden concentrated in designing more occasion dressing and dresses wearable for day and evening, creating two lines: the value-priced Mary McFadden Studio, featuring classic dresses and eveningwear, and Mary McFadden Collection, consisting of better suits and sportswear for younger women, which were launched in 2001. Additionally, McFadden, become a popular guest on QVC.
McFadden has been recognized with two Coty Awards and was inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1979. In 2002 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Fashion Week of the Americas. She was the first non-Hispanic recipient of this tribute. In 2008, McFadden was the recipient of the Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia.
