Josie Natori will be the guest of honor this spring, when the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation hosts its 10th annual luncheon.
More than 200 people from the tristate area are expected at the May 15 event at Riverpark restaurant.
Natori is the latest designer to be honored by the organization, following in the footsteps of Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Dennis Basso and others including Nicole Miller, who was among the 55 women at the inaugural luncheon, which was held in someone’s home. To date, more than $650,000 has gone to the foundation’s top-notch scientists to help further their research.
Aside from inevitably helping to boost ticket sales for the luncheon, Natori will be strengthening the cause by donating 20 percent of proceeds from online sales to the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation for a limited time in May. Attendees will get a glimpse of the designers’ offerings at the event, since Natori’s fall collection will be shown.
In honor of the Year of the Dragon, Natori introduced a limited-run Dragon collection last month that will have subsequent drops through this year. The debut assortment featured her first unisex styles.
The SWCRF salute is the second one that she has received in recent months. Last fall Natori received one of the Asia Society’s Game Changers awards. The artist Yayoi Kusama and Yahoo’s cofounder Jerry Yang and his fellow philanthropist wife Akiko Yamazaki were a few of the others.
The designer’s other philanthropic efforts include chairing the Asian Culture Council, and serving on the board of the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation. Natori is also deeply committed to enhancing manufacturing and supporting workers and emerging talents in the Philippines.