More than a year after Mary McFadden’s death, the designer’s work is being spotlighted via two different initiatives.
On Saturday, some of McFadden’s jewels were officially unveiled through a donation to the museum in Chestnut Hill, Pa., that is known simply as Woodmere. And earlier this month, the majority of her archive was moved to the Pratt Institute.
McFadden, an inveterate traveler whose collections were often inspired by ancient civilizations, and cultural and historical references, died Sept. 13, 2024, at the age of 85.
The New York school said that the Mary McFadden fashion archive has officially relocated to Pratt’s Brooklyn campus in the Juliana Curran Terian Design Center. Prior to her death, the designer had established her namesake archive at Drexel University in Philadelphia, which staged an exhibition of her designs in 2024. Now Drexel, the McFadden family, and the Pratt Institute department of fashion design have collaborated for the new arrangement, which brings hundreds of McFadden’s creations back to the city, where she built her business and where she lived for most of her adult life.
With her fashion designs, McFadden carved out a niche for herself, by creating hand-painted textiles, opulent beading, bejeweled embellishment and signature Marii pleating. She was known as “the High Priestess of Fashion.” In an interview with WWD last year, she singled out her time in Paris as a teenager at the Sorbonne for leaving an indelible impression on her outlook on life. Along with about 100 garments, Pratt students will also have access to such archival materials as McFadden’s patterns, artisanal textiles, sketch and design books, promotional content, and video documentation. They will be able to take a closer look at McFadden’s patented “Marii” fabric, pleated material that was made “to fall like liquid gold on the body,” as she once said. Designed to offer “experiential learning,” the new arrangement will include a graduate fellowship program, which will be led by a designated Mary McFadden Collection Scholar. That individual will expedite research, curriculum development, and curatorial projects tied to the collection.
In 2001, McFadden was honored by Pratt with its Legend Award.
Last weekend six or so of the women who attended Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the Woodmere’s Frances M. McGuire Hall for Art & Education were dressed in Mary McFadden, according to McFadden’s friend Joan Olden, who joined the designer’s company in 1972. Another attendee, the historian and educator Helen Drutt, told Olden about meeting McFadden in the 1970s and how she helped the designer find vendors when they both were in India. That is where McFadden had her Zardozi embroidery made. Olden said that she and Drutt reminisced about the designer and McFadden’s business partner Patrick Lanan, as well as his extensive art collection. Some of the guests who inquired about where they could find McFadden’s designs were informed that plans for a lending library are being discussed.
Some of the jewelry that is on view at McGuire Hall includes handcrafted, hammered brass pieces that McFadden had made decades ago by dipping them in 22-karat gold. Some were of various shapes and from different cultures including Phoenician, Roman and others. There were also ceramic discs that she intertwined with gold macramé. McFadden’s pieces are on display with the work of other artisans from Philadelphia in one of the new galleries.
Opening to the public on Saturday, McGuire Hall is a 17,000-square-foot addition of interior space including 14 galleries, a children’s art and education studio, and public spaces for events and programs. There are also four more acres of greenery.
The choice of a Philadelphia museum adds up, since McFadden’s family was from the city and some of her relatives still live there, Olden said. In a 2024 interview with WWD, McFadden told WWD, “Philadelphia is closest to my heart. My family comes from Philadelphia.”
One of her relatives, John H. McFadden, a cotton magnate who died in 1921, started an art collection of British masterpieces that is largely why the Philadelphia Museum of Art was built. Dubbed “the Cotton King,” McFadden was president of the New York Cotton Exchange at one point, and was also a major player in Liverpool for more than two decades before returning to his hometown to live out his later years. In addition to dealing cotton futures and collecting art, he supported medical research and polar exploration, as readers can learn in Richard Carreño’s “John H. McFadden and His Age, Cotton and Culture in Philadelphia.”
Acknowledging the McFadden family’s history in Philadelphia, Olden also highlighted some of the designer’s personal history such as being the first female president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. “There are real ties to both cities,” Olden said.
