Waltham fashion designer is honored by the Boston Arts Academy Foundation 

David Josef, a Waltham resident who has dressed stars from Judith Light to Raquel Welch to Melba Moore while centering his life on being positive and helping people and animals in need, has been named the 2025 Fashion Honoree by the Boston Arts Academy Foundation. 

The foundation, which supports Boston’s only public school for the performing and visual arts, will celebrate Josef during Pride Month on June 16, at a reception featuring cocktails and conversations about arts education. The event will be hosted by Josef and Lt. Gov.Kim Driscoll. It’s part of the BAAF’s yearlong fundraising campaign, which will culminate on Oct. 23 with its 2025 Honors Night. 

Josef’s Waltham design studio is crammed with dazzling fabrics, glistening beads and lace. Women come daily to get inspired by his designs and to be fitted for weddings and other unique occasions. He works from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. and flies around the world to do final fittings with star performers.

Despite all that glamor and hard work, he is proudest of his personal relationships. Foremost among these is his marriage to Daniel Forrester, who works with him in their atelier. “We’ve been together for 45 years!” Josef exclaimed. 

Josef also fondly recalls the late Kitty Dukakis, wife of former Massachusetts Gov. and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Josef dressed her during her husband’s presidential campaign. “Although he lost,” Josef said, “the beautiful thing was the friendship I developed with Kitty.”

Among other local friends are Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy, the Menino family and Yolanda Cellucci, the owner of a renowned bridal shop that used to be on Waverly Oaks Avenue.

A particular thrill for Josef was when he began designing dresses for, and becoming friends with, singer Melissa Manchester, whose records gave him much comfort as a bullied teenager. 

Josef and his husband also have a philanthropic bent. In 2015 they founded Fashion to the Rescue, a nonprofit to help a sanctuary for farm animals. Before it closed down during the pandemic, it raised $500,000. 

Through that venture, they met Jaymison Waite, an 11-year-old boy in Arizona who loved to draw “princess dresses” and was socially isolated. In a connection detailed by WCVB, Josef met the boy, encouraged him and then secretly made one of Jaymison’s designs into a dress to sell at an auction for the nonprofit. Jaymison and his family were flown to Boston for the event; four women made bids on the design, netting $20,000 and giving Jaymison a positive attitude about himself and his interests.

“You have to give joy,” Josef said. “You have to give back to people.”

As a child in Providence, R.I., Josef learned that he was happiest when sewing, and his mother and grandmother, both seamstresses, encouraged him. 

Sewing was a salve for him in his teenage years when he was tormented by fellow students in a “very tough” school system. He had moments of deep depression, but he’d go back to his sewing machine to create new outfits to wear to school the following day. 

He worked for his mother from ages 15 to 18 and then opened his own shop in Lexington.

Josef’s career was always Boston-based, and he used Boston-based stitchers. But he also made a splash in New York City, where his designs were shown in high-end stores such as Bloomingdale’s and Bonwit Teller. By 2000 he closed his New York showroom and focused on clients in Palm Springs and Palm Beach. 

When his mother died eight years later, “I had to reconfigure my life,” he said. Cellucci invited him and his machines into her shop. He and his husband moved to North Waltham and later opened their own atelier. 

“We love living and working in Waltham, and it was the best decision I ever made 15 years ago to move here after 30 years in Boston and New York,” Josef said.

Josef and Forrester especially love the restaurants in Waltham. “Moody Street, oy!” Josef laughed. Favorites include Vinota and Grassfields, where “we literally live.”

Despite the passing years, Josef said, “I feel like I’m 21. I have more energy right now than I ever did. I’m doing everything that I’ve always wanted to do. We’re at our best!”