Mary McFadden, Striking Designer Inspired by Ancient Cultures, Dies at 85

Mary McFadden, the fashion designer known for her dark hair, pale skin, and her creative homages to ancient cultures, died Friday at her Southampton, New York, home. She was 85.

The New York Times reports she died of myeloma dysplasia.

Born in NYC on October 1, 1938, she grew up privileged. Her brother told The Times, "She went to [boarding school] and came out, and then went off to Europe and came back and went to charity balls.”

After living in Memphis, she studied at NYC's Traphagen School of Fashion and at both Columbia and the Sorbonne. To break into fashion, she worked as a P.R. director for Christian Dior, taking payment in the form of haute couture.

Already an avid art collector, her design career bloomed after her 1964 wedding to De Beers exec Philip Harari. Living in his native South Africa, she found she was inspired by items she spied in markets, and developed a passion for designs of the Sumerians and Egyptians.

More than 10 years and one husband (she divorced and then married Frank McEwen, a gallerist; three more followed) later, her work for Vogue led to features that established her signature chic exoticism, which was championed by the likes of trendsetter Babe Paley, a family friend.

Jacqueline Onassis also favored her looks, and McFadden became a fixture at parties and nightclubs, a striking presence on the international scene.

She eventually shuttered her business in 2002, as her clientele — A-list socialites of another era — died off. Her looks were not translatable to pop figures.

Upon her death, Vogue remembered her as the "High Priestess of Fashion," a former editor of the venerable title, and a former CFDA president.

McFadden was preceded in death by her longtime partner Murray Gell-Mann in 2019, and by her daughter Justine Harari in 2023. She is survived by her brother.