Mary McFadden, a designer at her creative acme four decades ago, who died on Friday at 85, had lately come back into vogue. She had mostly faded from the public eye, though she had recently been the subject of a retrospective at Drexel University in Philadelphia, and yet her dresses were suddenly the toast of the town, vintage designs picked up on The RealReal or at a CFDA auction held at Sotheby’s. Fashion often moves this way, an almost forgotten talent spotlighted and celebrated by a new generation of stylish women—it’s one of the reasons it’s so satisfying to study it.
In her tribute to the late designer, Laird Borrelli-Persson puts McFadden’s work in context. The late ’70s and earl y’80s, she writes, “were a time of soft dressing, and McFadden’s 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, her 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.” Read more about her career and legacy at Vogue Runway. |
