INSIDE

And she remains a concert-goer, attending the occasional performance at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah and serving on the board of its resident Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

From Wall to Main Street

What Josie really wanted to do was go into business, like her father, who owns a construction company. To that end, she came to the United States to study at Manhattanville College in Purchase. Just two weeks after graduating, she got a job in corporate finance and “at age 21, swear to God, I interviewed and hired 26 people to start an office in Manila.” 

Three years later, she was climbing the Merrill Lynch ladder in New York and became the first female vice president in investment banking.

 She met her courtly husband – at that time an executive director and managing partner at Smith Barney – at a Wall Street party on her first, and last, blind date. Wall Street turned out to be better for romance than for a career.

“I got bored,” she says. So the two decided to start their own company. She thought of the Philippines and that embroidered blouse, and what began as an accident is now a 35-year history.

“Every major store bought it, because it didn’t look like a nightgown at all,” Josie recalls. “I think there was a big hole there that we filled, because I didn’t have any baggage of what I was supposed to be. I was presenting something that was clothes, and really, because I didn’t come from the fashion business, nor did I come from the background, nor did I have preconceived ideas of what lingerie should or could be, I just did it out of instinct and as a consumer, since I love fashion.”

That love was apparent at the recent launch of her first in-store, ready-to-wear collection at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. There a beaming Josie sipped Champagne, resting an affectionate hand on the natty arm of her husband.

But Josie doesn’t alight on her laurels for long. She’s in Manila to open a new boutique or visit her mother and father, ages 87 and 92 respectively, who still work. Or this “obvious shopaholic” is in Paris, Marrakesh or Kyoto, soaking up treasures and inspiration for her home and clothing lines.

“What I think is exciting, when I stop and think about it, is that in a way, when you buy a Natori something, I’m bringing this to your home and you don’t have to travel and find it, because I already did that for you. You can find those gorgeous embroidered things in the flea market, but they’re soiled already, and I’m able to reproduce them and it’s affordable.”