Known for her fashion knowledge, quiet authority, grace under pressure and strong tennis game, Froio managed a frenetic WWD newsroom with an extremely calm demeanor.
Friends, colleagues and family gathered to celebrate the life and legacy Thursday of Etta Froio, former senior vice president, executive editor and associate publisher of Fairchild Publications, parent of WWD, who died June 11 at age 94.
Among those who attended the memorial service at Frank E. Campbell — The Funeral Chapel at 1076 Madison Avenue in New York were Ed Nardoza, Bridget Foley, Isaac Mizrahi, Joe Boitano, Jaqui Lividini, Sonja Caproni, Neal Fox, Patti Cohen, Rebecca Moses, Peter Speliopoulos and Kenny Karlstein.
Throughout her long and distinguished career, Froio developed a reputation for her calm, steady authority, her ability to manage the most complex projects and difficult employees with aplomb, and the certainty she provided that everything would be executed smoothly and turn out perfectly. In heading up the coverage of the fashion collections, to which WWD devoted more ink than any other publication, she was like a great wartime general. She retired in 2012.
Both family and colleagues spoke about her generosity, her friendship with every major designer on both sides of the Atlantic, her love of food, cats and fast cars, and a wicked sense of humor and strong tennis game.
Dean Celia, Froio’s nephew, shared his earliest memories of Froio as a mother figure who helped raise him.
“My mother wasn’t able to be there to do the things a mother would do so Etta and her father, my grandfather, stepped in when my dad needed them,” said Celia.
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