Josie Natori

Born May 9, 1947

Manila, Philippines

Chief executive officer of a leading clothes and fashion accessories firm

"Respect yourself and your vocation. Respect is the result of passion. You cannot expect to get respectful reactions from people if what you are doing doesn't originate from deep within your soul."

J osie Natori has been an immensely successful business-woman in the diverse fields of investment banking and fashion. Natori made a major change in her life at the age of thirty—leaving the security of a high-paying position in banking to start a business, the Natori Company, importing crafts and clothes from the Philippines. Acting on a comment by a purchase agent, one who selects clothes that a store will sell, that a blouse Natori was selling would be more attractive as a nightshirt, Natori started a line of women's clothes that can be worn as intimate apparel or high fashion, as sleepwear or outer garments. Founded in 1977 and still thriving over twenty-five years later, the Natori Company has annual sales that exceed $50 million.

Family influences

Born Josefina Almeda Cruz in Manila, Philippines, on May 9, 1947, Natori was the eldest of six children. Her father, Felipe, owned a construction company and was an entrepreneur, one who invests in people with ideas for new business ventures and inventions. Her mother, Angelita Cruz, was trained as a pharmacist, but she also worked as her husband's business partner. Natori's maternal grandmother, Josefa Almeda, a hard-working and fiercely independent businesswoman, became a role model for Natori. She lived with the family and helped maintain a strict, Catholic upbringing for the children.

Natori's mother had an artistic side, playing piano and collecting works of art. She encouraged her daughter when Natori began playing the piano at age four. Natori became so accomplished that she played as a piano soloist with the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra at age nine. She attended Catholic schools in Manila, and as a high-school graduation gift, she went on a world-travel tour with her mother.

Natori remained for a time in Paris, and then New York City, where she decided she wanted to live. She enrolled in Manhattanville College in 1964 to study economics. Natori graduated in 1968 and began working as an investment banker with Bache Securities. Quickly making a strong impression, Natori opened a company office in Manila. She was able to attract Filipino businesspeople and investors to work with Bache, and then returned to New York.

Natori moved to Merrill Lynch, another investment banking firm. She was made a vice president of the firm by the time she reached the age of twenty-seven in 1974. Meanwhile, Natori had met her future husband, Kenneth Natori, on a blind date. He also worked on Wall Street (the major financial district of the United States, located in New York City), where he was an investment banker for Shearson Lehman Brothers, a rival firm. The Natoris were married in 1972, and in 1976 their son, Kenneth Jr., was born.

Daring to change

By 1977, Natori had accomplished everything she had wanted to in the field of finance. She and her husband wanted to start a business and considered buying a franchise outlet for fast food or clothes cleaning. But Natori saw an exciting opportunity in finely crafted items from the Philippines, which Natori believed would spark interest in the United States. She founded the Natori Company to import and sell items ranging from furniture to clothes. When Natori received a finely embroidered blouse from a friend as an example of Philippine-made clothes she could sell in her business, she seized the opportunity. "I knew there was a niche [market spot] for that," she told Nation's Business.

Natori soon showed she had an ear, as well as an eye, for items that would sell well. A buyer, or agent who purchases items to sell, at Bloomingdales' Department Store in New York City suggested that Natori lengthen the blouse and turn it into a nightshirt women could wear at home. Natori took the buyer's suggestion. Soon after, the first order came in for one thousand nightshirts. Natori quit investment banking to devote her full attention to the Natori Company. That was in the spring of 1977. By summer, Natori had designed a line of sleepwear using Philippine fabrics and detail work. Before winter came, she had $150,000 worth of orders.

"Respect yourself and your vocation," Natori would tell Entrepreneur magazine twenty-years later in an article titled "Tip Sheet: Top Entrepreneurs Share Their Hottest Sales Pointers." She explained how changing her career renewed her energy: "I began building an image because I was on fire from within. I was doing what I wanted to do again. For many years, I felt that way on Wall Street, but when the feelings were no longer there, I left. The reason many salespeople no longer get respect from their clients is that they no longer respect what they do or themselves for doing it. Always use your inner life as your guide to building a respectable image."

Despite not even knowing how to sew, Natori was the guiding creative force for the company's line of upscale lingerie or women's underwear. Since she had no formal design training, she hired an independent designer to turn her ideas into material reality. A businesswoman first and foremost, Natori began to participate in the fashion world, from meeting with buyers to having her line of clothes shown by models on runway exhibits in Paris and New York. In the early years of the Natori Company, she often used her New York and Paris apartments as showrooms of new fashions to prospective buyers. She flew to Manila to oversee production and to ensure that clothes were cut to specific sizes and specifications. Maintaining quality was a challenge because Natori was relying on managers and groups of workers she had only recently begun to employ.

A family affair

Natori depended on friends and relatives for help—an uncle pitched in to sew labels on to clothes during breaks from his job as a surgeon, and family members gathered to make a small trim cut on each item for a special order of one thousand blouses. In 1979, the company was better able to control quality and production by building its own sewing factory in the Philippines. The factory was built and operated by Natori's father.

The Natori Company quickly became famous for clothes that reflect the designs and craftsmanship of the Philippines as well as Asian themes and materials, including silk, crocodile leather, suede, black resin, and fabrics used in kimonos, traditional Japanese robes. By 1985, her company was so successful that Natori needed help in balancing her role as chief executive officer with her hands-on work in design, sales, marketing, and production. She persuaded her husband, Ken Natori, to leave his high-paying executive position on Wall Street to join the firm. He became chairman of the Natori Company.

The flourishing business created job opportunities in the Philippines. For helping the Filipino economy and displaying to the world the excellent craftsmanship of Filipino workers, Natori was honored in 1988 with the Galleon Award by Corazon Aquino (1933–), who was then president of the Philippines. Drawing on her cultural heritage for inspiration, Natori noted in a Women's Wear Daily profile that "the whole trademark of Natori is based on craftsmanship out of the Philippines. I took the best of what I am about, and combined it in this business."

Natori on Her Heritage

"Women in the Philippines are encouraged to be entrepreneurial. It's a very matriarchal culture."

"I was really looking for something that would allow me to take advantage of being Filipino and a woman." When a friend sent her hand-embroidered clothing crafted in the Philippines, Natori found what she was looking for, and a fashion empire was born.

New challenges

Always looking for new opportunities, the Natori Company consistently expanded its line of items during the 1990s. In addition to lingerie, Natori developed stylish pajamas, robes, pants, and tank tops in a wide variety of fabrics. In 1991, the company introduced Josie Natori Couture, a collection of elegant evening wear and dresses. A fashion jewelry collection was released in the fall of 1993, and in 1994 a day and evening shoe collection. Fragrances, including the perfumes Josie and Natori, were introduced in 1995.

The company continued prospering, in fact, because it was willing to change by responding to trends and sometimes influencing them. To keep on the front line of the fashion industry, Natori worked tirelessly, traveling to different places in the world two to four times a month and being the face of the company—the person most closely identified with what the company offers. Such a life requires much travel, many quick meals and meetings, daily discussion of new ideas, and quick decision-making. Barely over 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, Natori is a powerhouse of energy.

She divided the Natori label into two different entities for different kinds of women: the Natori Black label appeals to women who prefer elegant and luxurious silk and lace clothes, while the Natori White Label is intended for women who prefer modern casual styles. In 1998, she repositioned the Josie label to emphasize more contemporary fashion prints and colors, and the Cruz line to focus on more mainstream consumers.

A selection of scarves was introduced in 1999, and in 2001 handbags were added to accessories offered by the Natori Company. Reflecting how Natori reacts to challenges and opportunities, the handbag line quickly became the best-selling accessory item even though it was the one most recently introduced. A collection of belts was released in 2002. By then, the Natori Company was consistently generating over $40 million in annual sales.

For her efforts and successes, Natori won numerous awards. In 1999, she was named number forty in the Goldsea 100, America's 100 Top Asian Entrepreneurs list. Natori was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for distinguished achievement by an American immigrant. Working with the administration of President Bill Clinton (1946–; served 1993–2001), she served as a delegate to the Economic Summit Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1992, and as a commissioner to the White House Conference on Small Business in 1993. An advocate for women's rights, she received the National Organization of Women (NOW) Legal Defense and Education Fund Buddy award in 1990. In 1998, Natori was chosen as the New York City Partnership's Business Woman of the Year. In 2000, Natori worked with the Asia Society to direct an exhibition in New York City by up-and-coming designers inspired by Philippine tradition.

Summing up the success of the Natori Company in 2002, Womens' Wear Daily noted that the Natoris managed to continually grow and prosper "in an industry battered by a frenzy of bankruptcies and mergers and acquisitions. Their longevity comes from an astute sense of business acumen [intelligence] combined with a personal warmth that has charmed and disarmed supporters as well as competitors."

—Roger Matuz

For More Information

Books

Bautista, Veltisezar. The Filipino Americans (from 1763 to the Present): Their History, Culture and Traditions. Midlothian, VA: Bookhaus Publishers, 1998.

Crisostomo, Isabelo T. Filipino Achievers in the USA & Canada. Midlothian, VA: Bookhaus Publishers, 1996.

Kim, Hyung-Chan, ed. Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999.

Periodicals

Monget, Karyn, and Kletter, Melanie. "Natori's 25 Year Mystique."

Women's Wear Daily (November 25, 2002): p. 6. Willen, Janet A. "Fashioning a Business." Nation's Business (February 1995): p. 14.

Web Sites

"Asia Society Presents Philippine Style 2000." Asia Society.http://www.asiasociety.org/pressroom/rel-newsphilstyle.html (accessed on March 22, 2004).

"Josie Natori." Natori.http://www.natori.com/pages/natori-designer.html (accessed on March 22, 2004).

"Top Entrepreneurs Share Their Hottest Sales Pointers." Entrepreneur (June 1998). http://www.entrepreneur.com/mag/article/0,1539,228838,00.html (accessed on March 22, 2004).