Pratt Institute announced that the Mary McFadden fashion archive has officially relocated to Pratt’s Brooklyn campus in the Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, made possible by a collaboration with Drexel University, the McFadden family, and the Pratt Institute department of Fashion Design. Fashion design pioneer Mary McFadden, renowned for her architectural silhouettes and globally-inspired designs, played an integral role in the course of fashion history, with a career spanning the early 1960s through the early 2000s. McFadden was also a writer, editor, and the first female president of the Council for Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
In 2001, she was honored with a Pratt Legend Award, which celebrates distinguished individuals and corporations in the world of art and design whose accomplishments and values resonate with those of Pratt. Now, her remarkable collection has returned to fashion capital New York City—where McFadden started and ran her business—to inspire and educate future generations of designers.
With this relocation, Pratt students will have unprecedented hands-on access to hundreds of her expertly crafted garments, along with essential archival materials, including patterns, artisanal textiles, sketch/design books, promotional content, and rare video documentation. The donation serves as a comprehensive resource for the Fashion Design department and the broader Pratt community. Students will also be able to learn from McFadden’s patented “Marii” fabric, a pleated material that was designed “to fall like liquid gold on the body.”
The relocation and incorporation of these iconic materials into Pratt’s fashion curriculum, housed in the Fashion Design department in the School of Design, is supported by a generous gift from The Family of Mary McFadden. Pratt’s unique integrated approach will see the collection as a generative resource for the Institute’s curriculum across fashion, textiles, and cultural studies, fostering meaningful opportunities for experiential learning. A rotating graduate fellowship program, led by a designated Mary McFadden Collection Scholar, will facilitate research, curriculum development, and curatorial projects associated with this remarkable collection.
This move emphasizes experiential learning, positioning fashion as a critical component of cultural literacy and public history. This collection allows students direct engagement with artifacts from a collection that shaped the culture, not just of fashion, but of the time period.
There will be additional news about the archive and opportunities for research, study, curatorial projects, and more in the coming months. Visit Fashion Design at Pratt to learn more about the program.