Mary McFadden exhibit at Drexel highlights designer who dressed Jackie O and Gloria Steinem | PhillyVoice

May 10, 2024

Fashion exhibit at Drexel highlights designer who dressed Jackie O and Gloria Steinem

Mary McFadden was often called a 'design archaeologist' for her collections inspired by ancient civilizations.

By Kristin Hunt
PhillyVoice Staff

Provided image/Rachel Sepielli/Drexel University

Drexel's 'Modern Ritual' exhibit will include items in the new Mary McFadden Archive. The fashion designer comes from a family of Philadelphia cotton brokers.

Mary McFadden's life reads like a dishy celebrity memoir.

The book begins with a young fashion maven, fresh off stints at the Sorbonne and the public relations department of Christian Dior. She marries the first of her many husbands — at least four, though she's often said 11 — in a wedding that makes Vogue. She then moves to South Africa, where she works for fashion magazines and starts making her own clothes. Her outfits catch the attention of her colleagues and later, Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Steinem. Flip through the rest of the chapters and you end on a celebrated "design archaeologist" who claims 60 collections and her own fabric: marii, a synthetic charmeuse named after herself.

MORE: Kevin Hart makes FaceTime cameo on 'Abbott Elementary'

Fans and aspiring designers can soon see McFadden's pleated and beaded creations at Drexel University in a new exhibit launching this weekend. "Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden" will open at the school's URBN Center at 3501 Market St. on Saturday for a five-month run. McFadden's ties to the university, however, are far from temporary. The retrospective marks the official launch of Drexel's curated Mary McFadden Archive, which will promote her "enduring legacy" to a "wide audience," school officials said.

Though McFadden is primarily associated with New York City, where she still resides, her family has roots in Philadelphia. The McFaddens were wealthy cotton brokers who helped establish the Philadelphia Museum of Art and finance the Antarctic explorations of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Mary spent her childhood on a plantation in Tennessee, until her father Alexander's sudden death in an Aspen avalanche. The family relocated to Long Island, and Mary remained in the New York area for much of the ensuing decades — except when she was excavating.

Endlessly fascinated by ancient civilizations, McFadden organized her collections around the Inca, Russian czars and Medicis of 15th century Florence — and insisted on traveling to their countries of origin for research. The trips were always two weeks, and she returned with photographs from local museums and other touchstones. Her unique approach earned her the title of "design archaeologist" from the Met Costume Institute's chief curator, but McFadden doesn't see her methods as so unusual anymore.

"Pretty much everyone is an archaeologist now," she quipped Thursday. "In fashion and in life."

Provided images/Rachel Sepielli/Drexel University

Two of the dresses featured in Drexel's 'Modern Ritual' exhibit.

McFadden's designs are known for their long, sleek silhouettes. Her dresses were typically pleated, extending down to the ankle, though the colors and details varied widely. The gown Onassis wore to the 1976 Met Gala, for instance, was strapless and off-white. But McFadden also worked with deep purples, blues and reds, creating bejeweled collars and sleeves that draped to the elbow or wrist. This range will be on display at the Drexel exhibit, which the designer calls "a collection of all my best garments."

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at the "The Glory of Russian Costume”-themed Met Gala, 1976. pic.twitter.com/KOz3Pkp6ND
— Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) May 5, 2019

McFadden credits her time in South Africa with giving her a "definite direction in which to study" at the start of her career. She focused on the African art and design around her, fashioning tunics and shawls out of silks from Madagascar. Without this formative experience, she says, her career could've looked quite different.

"Who knows what would've happened," she said. "Probably I would have never been a designer, that's for sure."

McFadden wears other designers but admits she still "prefers my own clothing" nowadays. Though she closed her Manhattan shop over 20 years ago, she still feels "very connected" to modern fashion and is eager for new and old audiences to see her colorful designs. With any luck, they'll feel the same way Steinem did when she entered McFadden's shop in 1983:

"Thanks to a friend who gave me the gift of one of your classic pleated dresses, I’ve just come from your showroom where I indulged myself by buying two," the feminist leader wrote in a letter. "And after seeing your showroom, I’d like to move in."

Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt | @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Have a news tip? Let us know.