Mary McFadden dead at 85: Fashion designer's clothes were worn by the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Fashion designer Mary McFadden has died at her home in New York at the age of 85. Reem Acra shared a tribute to Mary McFadden on their Facebook and Instagram pages and shared a photograph of her, alongside a caption which read: “A tribute to iconic designer Mary McFadden whom I personally knew and admired.”

Mary McFadden was born in Manhattan on 1 October 1938, her father came from a family of cotton traders, her mother was Mary Josephine (Cutting) McFadden. Mary McFadden was only nine years old when her father died in an avalanche while skiing in Aspen, Colorado. 

Following her father’s death, Mary’s mother moved the family, including Mary and her brothers, George and John to the North Shore of Long Island. Mary McFadden got her first taste for fashion when her maternal grandmother, Mary J. Armory Cutting took her granddaughter to couture shows in Paris at the age of 13. 

According to the New York Times “When she was 16, that same grandmother gave her three diamond bracelets. A few years later, in 1958, she met Salvador Dalí at a cocktail party at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, and struck a deal with him: Her diamonds for some of his art.”

When it came to her education, Mary McFadden studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, Columbia University and attended the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City. Luckily for Mary McFadden, she convinced Christian Dior in New York to give her a job as their publicity director despite not knowing anything about the role.

The New York Times reported that Mary McFadden “offered to work three months for no pay, on the condition that if the company liked her work, they could reimburse her in clothing: 50 dresses per year from Dior-New York and Dior-Paris. She did the work, and she got both the job and the dresses. She later sold the dresses and used the money to buy art.”

In 1964, Mary McFadden married DeBeers executive Philip Harari and the couple moved to Johannesburg in South Africa where Mary worked for Vogue. Mary and Philip were only married for a few years before divorcing. Mary went on to marry Frank McEwen, the director of the National Gallery in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). 

Mary McFadden moved back to New York and became president of Mary McFadden Inc in 1976. After divorcing Frank McEwen, Mary McFadden went on to marry and divorce three more times, her husbands were Armin Schmidt, Kohle Yohannan and Vasilos Calitsis, a theatre director. 

Mary McFadden’s last partner was Murray Gell-Mann, the couple were together until he passed away in 2019. He was the 1969 Nobel Prize laureate in Physics.

Mary McFadden is survived by her brother John, her daughter Justine Harari who was from her first marriage, died in 2023. Mary McFadden was known for her dark hair, pale skin and her homages to ancient cultures. 

Mary McFadden’s designs were worn by the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She wore one of her designs to The Glory of Russian Costume Opening on 6 December, 1976.