Alfred Fiandaca, 72, Boston Fashion Designer

Alfred Fiandada, 72, Boston fashion designer

By: Lisa Fay

Fred Fiandaca who grew up in East Boston and later became one of America’s unrecognized genius of fashion, died February 9 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Palm Beach, Florida. He was 72.

Fiandaca learned fashion at the knees of both sides of his family.  While others would read books, he would linger in bed designing costumes for his puppets. By aged 9, he was cutting patterns alongside his father, a tailor for Harvard Coop, according to the Boston Globe article dated February 17, 2013.

A Mission Hill resident who requested anonymity remembered,

“Fiandaca, known then as Federico Fiandaca, was a very young and talented couturier dress designer beginning to show his fashion line in the early 1960s.  Some of his earliest fashion shows were first assisted and encouraged by the well regarded doyenne of fashion and models in Boston, Mrs. Mildred Alpert, Director of the Academie Moderne on Commonwealth Avenue.

“Professional models active in the field came to the Academie  to train the newest up-and-coming young women suited for the field, and who were  hoping to enter the field of professional modeling, with all aspects of modeling  training for fashion taught at the Academie. “

“The professional models from various modeling agencies were assisted backstage by some of the modeling students from Mrs. Alpert's Academie, benefiting both Mr. Fiandaca's presentation, and the young future models of Boston, “she further added.

The Mission Hill resident concluded, “ Mrs. Alpert assisted Mr. Fiandaca in presenting his innovative and beautiful fashions at the Copley Plaza Luncheon Fashion Shows, The Park Plaza Hotel, as well as at other such fine venues, like the Somerset Hotel, in the summer with its lovely setting by the hotel pool and dining area.  The Somerset is now a condominium complex on Commonwealth Avenue.  His beautiful couturier lines presented at the various Luncheon Shows became a great favorite of the Boston fashion scene. “

Fiandada had a studio on Newbury Street for 40 years, which later moved to Albany Street in 2009.  He also maintained a couture house in Palm Beach and New York and was the designer for Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Joan Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, and most recently, Ann Romney.

The accomplishments of her father were remarkable, considering that he had dyslexia, according to his daughter, Michelle, from the same Boston Globe article.

Fiandada maintained a Fenway connection having studied at Mass College of Art and Design which also held a retrospective of his work in 2000.

Two memories stand out about Alfred. I met Alfred on the Mass Turnpike where the Bowker Overpass is in the 1990s.  We were walking in opposite directions: he towards the Fenway and I towards Kenmore Square. "As he passed me, he said, "You should go to New York." I didn't exactly look my best as I was wearing green sweatpants and sweatshirt. I still have it. He probably did not realize that I knew who he was, but I did. 

He also had a connection to Framingham State College, my alma mater which is now Framingham State University in the 1970s when it had a stellar art department. I remembered walking by May Hall where the Art Department was housed and always wondered whether I could make art, thinking you needed superhuman or innate abilities. I now know all work takes perseverance, whether one is talented or not.

Anyway, I remember seeing his brother’s name, Frederick Fiandaca, on the faculty. He would always take his art students to Aldred’s fashion salon on Newbury Street. Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, an American Indian painter and a 1976 graduate of Framingham State University remembered  the Fiandacas.

Lisa Fay