Grandmother Natalina Esposito

Grandma Natalina was born on December 24 and her name means “she who was born at Christmas”.
She was an excellent seamstress, coming from a fishermen family, called the “Pulese” because they came from Puolo (suburb of Sorrento).

The skill in the art of sewing gave her great fame in the country and most of the tailors from Positano learned the craft from her. One of the first “Positano Fashion” shops was made by Mrs Eva de Ruggiero, my grandmother created for this shop excellent tailored suits with precious fabrics, sometimes hand-painted by local artists. On Cinemonde Magazine cover of 1950, the famous actress Ingrid Bergman wears a dress hand-painted by the artist Irene Kowaliska. Irene Kowaliska used to paint fabrics that my grand mother turned into beautiful dresses.

Grandma Natalina also worked on her own; she used to make wedding dresses  and outfits for important nobles families on holiday . She also produced pants for fishermen with a strong fabric from Genova (jeans), during periods of poverty she patched up for free broken or unstitched clothes.

In the Church of Santa Maria Assunta (Positano) there is a dress made by my grandmother. The dress, finely crafted with precious fabrics and gold, is on the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, it was made about 50 years ago and every  piece of gold was worked by hand to create a wonderful floral design.