Mary Josephine McFadden is an American fashion designer and writer.

Family

McFadden is the only daughter of Alexander Bloomfield McFadden, a cotton broker, and her mother was the former Mary Josephine Cutting, a socialite and concert pianist. Her father died in 1948, when he was killed in an avalanche while climbing in the Rocky Mountains. She is a descendant of Robert Fulton

Robert Fulton

Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...

, the steamboat pioneer.

She has two brothers, George, who died in April 2008 after a plane he was on crashed into Toledo Bend Reservoir

Toledo Bend Reservoir

Toledo Bend Reservoir is a reservoir on the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana. The lake has an area of 185,000 acres , the largest man-made body of water in Texas, the largest in the South, and the fifth largest in the United States. The dam is capable of generating 92 megawatts of...

,Texas, and John McFadden, and two half-brothers, Watson B. and Wolcott R. Blair.

McFadden's stepfather is the investment banker Watson K. Blair.

Education

After graduating from Greenvale and Foxcroft, McFadden studied at the École Lubec, 1955-56 and at the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

, 1956-57. She also studied fashion at the Traphagen School of Design in 1956 and sociology at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and at the New School for Social Research, New York, 1958-60. She also attended the Dante Alighieri Institute in Rome.

Career

Her career included Director of Public Relations, Dior New York, 1962-64; merchandising editor, Vogue, South Africa, 1964-65; travel and political columnist, Rand Daily Mail, South Africa, 1965-68; founder, Vukutu sculpture workshop, Rhodesia, 1968-70 ; also freelance editor for My Fair Lady, Cape Town, and Vogue, Paris, 1968-70; special projects editor, American Vogue, New York, 1970; freelance fashion and jewelry designer, New York, from 1973; Marii pleated fabric patented, 1975; president, Mary McFadden Inc., from 1976; home furnishings line introduced, 1978; lower priced line manufactured by Jack Mulqueen, from 1980; Mary McFadden Knitwear Company, launched 1981; also costume designer for Indian film Zooni, 1993; launched Mary McFadden Studio, 1995; began designing neckwear, 1999; Mary McFadden Collection, debuted 2001.

Since then she has received many honors including the President's Fellows Award of the Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...

 and has served as President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America

Council of Fashion Designers of America

The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. is a not-for-profit trade association of over 350 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg is the group's President and Steven Kolb is the Executive Director...

. McFadden's collections have been shown on runways in New York, Paris, Rome, Milan, and Tokyo. McFadden won a Coty Award

Coty Award

The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards were first announced in January 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company Coty, Inc. to promote and celebrate American fashion, and encourage design during the Second World War. The first awards were presented in January 1943, with Norman Norell winning...

 in 1976 and entered the Coty Hall of Fame in 1979.

• Exhibitions:A Passion for Fashion: The Mortimer Collection, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1993. Mary McFadden: Goddesses, Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA, 2008.

• Awards: Coty American Fashion Critics award, 1976, 1978, 1979; Audemars Piquet Fashion award, 1976; Rex award, 1977; Moore College of Art award, Philadelphia, 1977; Pennsylvania Governor's award, 1977; Roscoe award, 1978; Presidential Fellows award, Rhode Island School of Design, 1979; Neiman Marcus award, 1979; Doctor of Fine Arts, Miami International Fine Arts College, 1984; American Printed Fabrics Council Tommy award, 1991; Visionary Woman Award, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, 2008.

Personal life

McFadden has been married to:

• Philip Victor Harari, a former British Army officer and a company director of De Beers, the South African diamond company. They married on 25 September 1964, at St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City, and McFadden's attendants included Warhol star Baby Jane Holzer (divorced) . The couple had one child, Justine, a photographer and film editor.
• Francis Jack McEwen
  Frank McEwen
  Francis Jack "Frank" McEwen, OBE was an English artist, teacher, and museum administrator. He is best remembered today for his efforts to bring attention to the work of Shona artists in Rhodesia, and for helping to found the National Gallery of Zimbabwe...
  
  , OBE, the director of Rhodesia's National Gallery of Art, married January 1969 in Salisbury, Rhodesia (divorced, 1970)
• Armin Schmidt, married 1981 (divorced)
• Kohle Yohannan, married 1989 (born 1967, divorced 1992)

In 2007, McFadden's engagement to investment banker Marquette de Bary, (born 1918) was revealed by several newspapers.

In 2009, a person close to the family disclosed that McFadden is not engaged, but is dating Marquette de Bary.

External links

• FashionEncyclopedia.com profile

Publications

• BooksMorris, Bernadine, and Barbara Walz, The Fashion Makers, NewYork, 1978.
• Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, NewYork, 1985.
• Diamonstein, Barbaralee, Fashion: The Inside Story, New York,1985.
• Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style, New York, 1989
• Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York,1996.
• ArticlesTucker, Priscilla, "Mary Had a Little Dress," in the New York Daily News, 6 April 1980.
• Foley, Bridget, "Mary McFadden: A New Type of Tycoon," in New York Apparel News, March 1983.
• Rafferty, Diane, "Beyond Fashion," in Connoisseur (New York),October 1988.
• Thurman, Judith, "Power Gives You an Aura, Says Mary McFadden," in Mirabella, September 1989.
• Gross, Michael, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: The Life and Loves of Mary McFadden," in New York, 26 March 1990.
• "The Designers Talk Passion, Whimsy and Picassos," in ARTnews (New York), September 1990.
• Horyn, Cathy, "A Mary-Tale Romance," in the Washington Post, 9June 1991.
• "New York: Mary McFadden," in WWD, 4 November 1994.
• Friedman, Arthur, "McFadden Exits Seventh on Sixth…," in WWD, 21 March 1995.
• "MMCF's New Society," in WWD, 25 July 1995.
• "Mary McFadden Launches Better Special-Occasion Line," in WWD, 19 September 1995.
• Monget, Karyn, "McFadden, Boutique Industries Renew Licensing Agreement," in WWD, 20 October 1997.
• McKinney, Melonee, "Women's Designer Mary McFadden to DoFirst-Ever Neckwear Collection," in WWD, 19 March 1999.
• "Joan Blumberger Olden Rejoins Mary McFadden," in WWD, 11August 2000.
• Greenberg, Julee, "McFadden Expanding," in WWD, 5 September 2001.