Author: RachelAdelicia

Mary McFadden, infomous for her pleated creations- but also an Editor at Vogue, working in PR for Dior, art collector and writer, left us recently. It is always shocking when someone who shaped so much of our fashion world passes; I can’t help but going through their lives and their creations, and wonder how I can honor them through fashion. Mary McFadden (to me) is the 1980s glam, that still looks sophisticated (and fun).

Above, where I am wearing one of my favorite Mary McFadden- a purple pleated number that’s seen me from cocktails to holidays and everything in between.

Mary McFadden was a native New Yorker, who worked in PR for Dior in the early 1960s, until she married her first husband. They moved to South Africa- where he worked for De Beers and Mary became the editor for Vogue South Africa. She opened her label in 1976, creating distinctive apparel that was inspired by the art of China, Africa, Greece, and South America as well as cultures she encountered during her travels. She collected a distinguished array of objects in varied substances, particularly gold. Acclaimed for her use of African and Asian prints intricately quilted jackets, as well as for her pure, timeless designs using “Marii” pleating that was enhanced by beaded cuffs and collars, jewel encrusted trim and panels, as well as gold embroidery, “zardozi.” McFadden also designed bold sculptural jewelry.

McFadden’s clothes, though clean-lined, were conceived to combine, textures, graphic designs and art of many cultures. They referenced faraway (from New York) cultures and long-ago times. Her work was described as having the quality of “romantic abstraction” by Vogue journalist Jill Robinson in 1977. “I’m not a draping artist. My construction is simple, flat, one-dimensional. I’m interested in limiting bulk, in a total spareness of finishing,” said the designer at the time.

Vogue credits 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. Though not hippie-ish in the least, they tapped into the prevalent fantasy of other places and other times. Free of constraints, McFadden’s clothes were polished but comfortable, allowing for movement. And women’s lives were changing apace, both in boardrooms and in bedrooms. A McFadden dress was as sensual as it was timeless. As easy-on, easy-off for the evening as Diane von Furstenberg’s wraps were for the day.

Mary McFadden the brand closed in 2002. People will tell you that it’s because the customer and style changed- and yes, the early ’00s were not as chic. However, these dresses, the pleating, the draping, the embellishments are all still favorites of mine. I am also of the opinion that if you don’t have a place to wear something fantastic you create it!

Mary McFadden’s many honors include the President’s Fellows Award of the Rhode Island School of Design. She was elected president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Her collections have been shown on runways in New York, London, Russia, India, South and Central America, and Tokyo. Miss McFadden received a Coty Award in 1976; she entered the Coty Hall of Fame in 1979, the same year she received the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award. Her collections have also been exhibited at Allentown Museum, PA; The Dixon Museum, Memphis Tennessee; The Women’s Museum, Washington D.D. and More College of Art, Philadelphia, PA.

You can read more about Mary McFadden here, here, and here. I have also linked some of my favorite Mary McFadden’s that are available for purchase below.

Here’s to pleats and art and the dresses that combine them all! XO RA

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