Josie Natori

Josie Natori is one of the labels of The Natori Company, the New York intimate apparel house founded in 1977 by Josie Cruz Natori, a Manila-born former investment banker. The label name in its current form dates to fall 2010, when the company renamed its Natorious ready-to-wear line, launched in 2008, as Josie Natori. Alongside it the company runs Natori, the main lingerie and sleepwear line, and Josie, the younger, more casual label.

The family of names is confusing, even for buyers. Each is a different price and mood, and all of them come back to one founder.

From Merrill Lynch to Seventh Avenue

Josefina Almeda Cruz was born in Manila in 1947 and moved to the United States in 1964 to study at Manhattanville College. She went into finance and became the first female vice president in corporate finance at Merrill Lynch. By her own account she found Wall Street unfulfilling.

The way into fashion was almost accidental. A Bloomingdale's buyer looked at embroidered peasant blouses she had brought from the Philippines and suggested making them longer, so they could be sold as nightshirts. Natori later recalled taking 350,000 dollars in orders within three weeks, from a trunk show at Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1977 she started The Natori Company, using Philippine embroidery and hand finishing on sleepwear for American department stores.

East-meets-West sleepwear

That first product set the house style. Natori pieces combine Asian decorative techniques, embroidery, appliqué and print, with Western lingerie and lounge shapes. For decades the company has sold through the top American department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's, and in at least 15 other countries.

Josie Natori, Natori and Josie: how the labels divide up

The Natori Company has added and renamed lines many times, so a short map helps:

• Natori: the core lingerie, bras and sleepwear line, the best-known name in department stores.
• Josie Natori: the top-tier label, used for ready-to-wear and the most elaborate lingerie and sleepwear. The name was first used for the founder's fuller collection, then applied in fall 2010 to the former Natorious line.
• Josie: a contemporary label repositioned in 1998 around brighter prints and colors, aimed at a younger, more casual customer.
• N Natori and Cruz: further divisions listed for the company.

The company also launched Josie Natori Couture in 1991 for evening wear, and added fashion jewelry in 1993, footwear in 1994 and fragrance in 1995. A small men's line followed in 2006.

Where the bralette fits

Much of what shoppers now see under the Josie and Natori names is soft and wire-free: lace bralettes, jersey sleep sets, robes and lounge trousers. That shift follows the wider market since the mid-2010s, when wire-free bras grew into a major category. The Natori group was well placed for it, because sleepwear and loungewear had always been the core of the business.

The founder as the brand

Few lingerie companies are as closely identified with one person. Josie Natori has received the Order of Lakandula, the Philippines' highest civilian honor, in 2007, as well as the Ellis Island Family Heritage Award the same year, and was featured on a Philippine postage stamp in 2021. She married Kenneth Natori in 1972, and their son Kenneth has worked in the business on e-commerce and finance.

In a 2022 interview for the brand's 45th anniversary, WWD noted that she still spoke about the collections as "wearable art" and was open in her respect for newer players such as Skims, an unusually generous remark from a founder of her generation about a celebrity start-up.

Why the name matters

Putting her full name on the top label was a deliberate choice. In the American department store, Natori is the brand customers know from the lingerie floor. Josie Natori, with the first name in front, signals the founder's own hand: more embroidery, more silk, more price. The name has carried that meaning since 2010, more than three decades after a banker first showed Philippine blouses to a Bloomingdale's buyer.

Last updated October 7, 2026