Josie Natori
Josie Cruz Natori, founder and current CEO and chief creative officer, started her globally recognized lifestyle brand in her living room 46 years ago. Now her company’s offices are located in NoMad, the perfect central hub for a brand as successful as hers. She celebrated her 45 year anniversary last year by receiving the prestigious Hall of Fame ACE Award.
Ms. Natori has made an indelible mark on the fashion world, and while it started with elegant lingerie, the privately-held company has grown to include ready-to-wear, home décor, fragrance, fashion jewelry, fine jewelry, footwear, and hosiery that reflect the brand’s rich DNA. Known for rich color, embroidery, east/west influence, and femininity, we can’t help but think that the best is yet to come.
Whenever Ms. Natori discusses her success, she always credits her family first. Born and raised in the Philippines, she was nurtured by a strong matriarchal society, and her grandmother and mother encouraged her to be her best and to be self-reliant financially. She credits her mother for her sense of fashion, recalling that if she went out with a pink dress, she would also have on a pink pair of shoes and a pink bow.
She had an amazing role model in her father, a self-made man, who founded and grew his construction company into one of the largest in the Philippines. She credits her husband Kenneth Sr. for his unwavering support and her son Kenneth, who joined the company 16 years ago and is The Natori Company’s president.
Ms. Natori is grateful for her Filipino heritage. Her home has been the primary inspiration for her designs, which have a strong east/west sensibility. She has relied on the expert Filipino craftsmanship of a mainly female workforce to bring her art to life. Her father built her first factory in the Philippines, and today she has two facilities, with over 100,000 sq feet of factory floor. The factories make 70% of the Natori product and employ over 600 workers. The artists that create Natori product are exquisite with embroidery, beading and embellishment; the details that make the designs so distinctive. One item can pass through 20 hands.
“NoMad has a quaint neighborhood feel. Between the historic architecture and nearby Madison Square Park, it feels cozy yet still central to everything. my corner office allows me to overlook Manhattan, from uptown to the Hudson river.”
Ms. Natori, while drawn to the arts from a young age, had no intention of starting a fashion company. She was a talented pianist, who performed solo at the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra at only nine years old. When it was time for college, she headed to the United States to study economics at Manhattanville College. She started her career in finance, spending nine years on Wall Street, quickly rising through the ranks to become the first woman vice president in investment banking for Merrill Lynch. Though successful, she was not fulfilled and sought out opportunities to launch her own business, passing on a McDonald’s franchise and a car wash to try her hand at selling apparel she had brought in from the Philippines.
With no contacts in the fashion industry, Ms. Natori cold-called the buyers to set up appointments. Her first appointment was with Bloomingdale’s, where she presented a cotton embroidered blouse. The buyer suggested she make it longer and turn it into a nightshirt, a subtle tweak that became the destiny of the Natori brand. In the early days, Ms. Natori hosted buyers in her apartment, finding success out of the gate, with early orders coming from Saks Fifth Avenue, Hudson Bay, Macy’s and Bonwit Teller. The brand offered a fresh and distinctively different look and thrived in the 80s with an assortment of comfortable, at home lounge styles. Like most businesses, Ms. Natori notes there were learnings along the way, but her tenacity and evolving sense of style and creativity has kept the company relevant and growing over the years.
She finds much of her inspiration in antiquities, and the self-described shopaholic keeps an impressive archive of her finds over the past 50 years. The treasures include textiles, porcelains, and artifacts that provide inspiration for her prints and designs. She is constantly on the hunt for new things, aiming to bring the world into your closet, by translating them into a wearable way.
Ms. Natori is committed to giving back and sits on the boards of the Asian Cultural Council, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines. She is also a member of the Committee of 200. She was presented with the Galleon Award in 1988 by then-President of the Republic of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino. She received the Lakandula Award, considered the highest honor for a Filipino citizen, and was recognized with the prestigious Humanitarian Award by Fashion Group International. In 2021, Natori along with nine others were featured in a Philippine postage stamp collection called Living Legends: World-Renowned Filipinos by Philippine Postal Corporation.
Shop the NoMad-based brand on her site Natori.com.