To celebrate five years of our best-selling Natalie flat, Sarah designed a made-to-order Natalie materialized in hand-pleated Italian blue satin completed with an 18-Karat solid gold bow and 49 individually placed freshwater pearls.
The Girl with a Pearl Natalie, was inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” Sarah wanted to pay homage to Vermeer’s use of light and color pigmentation. His unique way of using rare ultramarine paint, which was made from pigments of crushed lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, was unprecedented at the time. We decided to rematerialize our Natalie in a special blue satin fabric to give the flat a similar sheen when held close to the light.
We worked with a three-century-old,family-owned gold smithery in Valenza, Italy to create the solid gold and pearl bow. Valenza is a small city, not far from Turin and Milan. It is internationally recognized for it’s centuries-old “gold districts,” and boasts the highest number of artisan gold and jewelry businesses in the country. Our amazing production manager Mattia flew to Valenza to handpick the pearls. After reviewing dozens of different pearl types, from baroque to South Sea, and a few facetime calls with Sarah they decided on the simple yet elegant freshwater pearl.
Next up, we had to create the gold structure of the bow. Giovanni, the goldsmith, melted 18-Karat solid gold and shaped it to mimic our signature asymmetrical bow. From there, he carved small but impactful grooves in the bow where the pearls would be placed. Once the bow was completed, Giovanni individually hand-placed and carefully secured 49 freshwater pearls onto the surface of the bow.
The bow was then fastened to the satin flat at our factory outside Milan and hand-carried to New York City. All proceeds of our made-to-order Natalie flat will benefit the Lower Eastside Girls Club, a New York City community center with programs in the arts, sciences, leadership, entrepreneurship, and wellness for girls in middle and high school.
