Natori exits the bedroom and strides onto the street

Lingerie is the cornerstone of the Natori name which currently boasts underwear, accessories including bags and a home line.

Branching out to ready-to-wear was a natural progression for a label that prided itself on fashion that could easily transition from bedroom to boardroom.

At the launch of the new ready-to-wear store in Rustan’s Makati last Tuesday, Josie Natori, garbed in her signature monochromatic black, was proud of the welcome they’d received.

“When we presented our spring-summer line months ago, everyone who saw it wanted us to make it available here,” Josie explains. “Nedy Tantoco told me, ‘Go for it.’ So here we are, literally four months later.”

The Natori RTW store is an extension of its loungewear and lingerie space, which dominates a key portion of the women’s floor of Rustan’s. Juxtaposed against sleek dark wood are bejeweled garments from the current season, including Philippine-made accessories like dramatic neck pieces.

“To be able to open here in Rustan’s makes me happy,” she remarked. “Even though we started at Saks, this means a lot more to me.”

Eastbound and down

Set to the tune of French colonial Indochine, the spring-summer collection harked to a golden age of easy elegance.

Settling on the eastern reference is a starting point for the Natori team.

“Every season, we ask ourselves ‘Where would Josie like to go now? What place will inspire us this time?’” says David Leung, Natori VP design director. “We were sitting at Indochine, this restaurant in New York, when she said, ‘Why not Indochine?’”

Visible nods to the region that can be found in the digital painterly prints on dresses, evocative of the Mekong river. A sophisticated palette for S/S involved plenty of black, a signature of the New York designer, as well as singular additions of lime and orange.

Silhouettes, in homage to the Natori woman, stayed true to the brand: wide-leg trousers that glided with every step, draped tunics that molded to the body without revealing skin. It’s an aesthetic both modern and conservative, grown up yet edgy.

“This collection is really about soft dressing,” Josie asserts. “It epitomizes what the Natori philosophy is about: easy dressing, day to night, comfortable, makes you feel feminine, makes you feel good.”

It’s a global aesthetic that doesn’t pay heed to trends. As Josie summed up: “It’s versatile and timeless.”