Josie Natori

Josie Natori (born Josefina Almeda Cruz, May 9, 1947) is a Filipino-American fashion designer and the CEO and founder of The Natori Company.

Natori served as a commissioner on the White House Conference on Small Business.

Josefina Almeda Cruz was born in the Philippines in 1947.

Her mother is Angelita Almeda, the sister of Fredesvinda Almeda.

Both married construction magnates.

Her mother married her father, Felipe Cruz, whose namesake company remains one of the largest in the industry.

She was raised in a close-knit Filipino family, as one of six siblings.

Her first love was the piano, and she performed solo with the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of nine.

She learned about business from a young age; her grandmother also owned several businesses, including a pharmacy.

Natori moved to the United States in 1964 to attend Manhattanville College, where she took every economics course she could, and also enrolled in courses at Fordham University.

The couple married in 1972.

She became a citizen in 1974.

Natori has said: "There is no better place in the world for an immigrant to succeed than in the U.S. Follow your dream and make it happen."

After graduating, she took a corporate finance position as an employee of stock brokerage firm and investment bank Bache & Co., during which she traveled back to Manila to open a branch office there.

At 21, she was the assistant manager of the office, a position she held for two years.

After the office closed due to market changes, Natori returned to New York and worked at Merrill Lynch, where she rose the ranks to become the first female Vice President in corporate finance.

On Wall Street, she also met her husband Ken Natori, who served as a Managing Director of Shearson Lehman.

In 1974, Natori became a United States citizen.

Natori made the move from Wall Street to fashion full-time in 1977, after considering a number of other entrepreneurial ventures from opening a McDonald's franchise, to reproducing antique furniture.

She settled on fashion after a buyer at Bloomingdale's suggested she lengthen some peasant blouses sent to her from her native Philippines.

The Natori Company now sells lingerie, sleepwear, ready-to-wear, and accessories to upscale department stores in the US, and to at least fifteen countries internationally.

Natori has said that 70 percent of her company's products are made in the Philippines.

Her success came early: In 1978 she operated a 300 square-foot showroom, which by 1983 had expanded to 18,000 square feet.

The assassination of Filipino opposition leader Benigno Aquino in 1983 cut off her supply route to and from the Philippines, which almost sank her business, if not for the support of her family.

At present, her evening robes and bathrobes, both in silk and cotton, are sought after by women in the Philippines, primarily because of quality and secondly as a badge of pride for the icon that she has become.

In March 2007 she was awarded the Order of Lakandula, one of the highest civilian awards in the Philippines.

In April 2007, Natori received the "Peopling of America" Award from the Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation.

She often says her business philosophy is based around an "East-West mix" of culture and design.

In addition to women's clothing, the company is also in the home furnishings industry, and in May, 2008 signed a licensing deal to sell Natori perfume.

The perfume debuted in the US in September, 2009, with international distribution to follow.

Natori also launched towel and eyewear lines in the Fall of 2009 as well.

Natori's first installment debuted October 30, 2011, ending its run on December 22.

The second installment of Asia-inspired silk underwear and other items debuted New Year's Day 2012 and ran until February.

The collection consisted of 37 pieces, including bras, panties, robes, knits, leggings, camis, and chemises with prices ranging from $10 to $35.

The company is in a longterm partnership with Luxe Brands to "develop and launch a series of lifestyle collections."

Natori has been named by Yahoo as a "self-made immigrant millionaire" and furnished the accommodations for Pope Francis during his January 2015 visit to Manila.

"Basically, we all helped in our own ways," she said, adding with a laugh.

"I provided everything but the soap. "We just wanted to respect the way he lives, which is very simple.

Everything was done simply and mostly in white because that is what he would have wanted," Natori told Women's Wear Daily. She has appeared on the Fox Business Network to talk about lingerie business trends and international shipping. "We ship from our factory in the Philippines and also in China and it's a nightmare," Natori told the news channel about delays caused by International Longshore and Warehouse Union work stoppages at West Coast Ports. Natori's parties have been covered by social blogs from New York, and her career switch from finance to fashion has been chronicled by the Oprah media network.

The Natori x Target collaboration — themed "East Meets West" — was Target's first limited-edition lingerie and loungewear collection.