Designer for the Elite Moves to the Masses

It is a startling face, virtually paper-white with pale lips and penciled eyebrows that stretch to the hairline. The baby-fine hair sits helmet-like high off the forehead, and the only distraction from this study in black and white are two large, fake green jewels that extend from the ears.

The face belongs to Mary McFadden, the designer whose exotic style is as evident on her person as in the glamorous evening clothes for which she is known.

McFadden, who once said “women should look like paintings,” designs dresses with prints and detailing that reflect her interest in primitive and modern art and her travels to remote corners of the world. It could be to the Inyanga province in Zimbabwe or to Ahmadabad, India, which she visited last spring to study ancient lace techniques.

“I’ll make three more trips there after the monsoon,” she says matter-of-factly.

‘Rich and Famous’ Clientele

Priced from $1,000 to $3,000 apiece, McFadden’s dresses are usually worn by women who could qualify for a lineup on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” including Jacqueline Onassis, Barbara Walters, Faye Dunaway, Diana Vreeland, Jessica Lange and Brooke Shields.

All that explains why McFadden gave the executives at J. C. Penney a call last September.

“Since I’ve only been able to deal with this very elite group of American ladies,” McFadden says, “I wanted to be able to bring my clothes into a mass area.”

The result is the Mary McFadden Signature Collection, priced from $38 to $88. It debuts this month at J. C. Penney, where McFadden joins the retail chain’s growing number of New York designers, which now includes Halston, Lee Wright and Alan Flusser.

Speaking over the din at Chaya Brasserie, a Franco-Japanese restaurant in West Hollywood--where the designer’s Kabuki makeup and Marii-pleated dress (“I think it’s about 10 years old”) fit right in--McFadden describes the concept of the line as “elemental dressing.” The elements are blouses, sweaters, cropped jackets, blazers, pants and skirts, all interrelated from season to season. There will be six 15-piece collections a year.

Unusual Color Palette

The only McFadden-signature touch evident in the new line is the unusual color palette--”teal, cinnabar and cobalt with an accent of mustard.” There are no spun-lace collars adapted from some ancient tribe or prints taken from a modern master.

“I didn’t want to do anything too weird in this price range, because I don’t think it (weird) will sell,” she says flatly. “Nothing crazy. I’m a great classicist, and these are very classical clothes.”

McFadden says the collection is geared for young women much like her 20-year-old daughter Justine, a writer working at Spin magazine in New York.

“They’re practical products,” she maintains, on which entire wardrobes can be built.

Fabrics Are Practical

Aside from the classical styling, what makes them practical are the fabrics, which are a point of pride for her. They are mostly Japanese-made synthetics and synthetic blends that “don’t feel like rubber,” she says. “I searched all over the world for these particular fabrics. I’ve been a big believer in them for a long time--there’s no maintenance; they have a long life; they don’t crease and they simulate the real thing.”

McFadden’s costliest evening gowns are also made of 100% polyester.

The designer can change subjects and talk with equal passion on raising orchids, women weightlifters (“think about it . . . women are building their strength not only intellectually but physically”) and hard work.

“I consider my entire life as a vacation, because I like working,” she announces, adding that she is as much involved with her company’s business side as with the creative side.

“Business is an art. It’s just as great an art as design. I had a great mentor (her late business partner J. Patrick Lannan). I spend more time reading the financial pages than anything. I say to my executives that if they don’t read the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal every day, they’re not with it.”

Indeed, the clothing business is merely one of McFadden’s many careers, which have included political reporting in South Africa and doing publicity for Christian Dior.

After talking to McFadden, you begin to wonder where she will stop.

“I don’t see women as being the weaker sex,” she says. “I see us as eventually being the stronger sex because our energy is on the up(swing) and men’s is on the down.”