NEED TO KNOW
- Natali Germanotta, younger sister of Lady Gaga, has officially launched her eponymous fashion line with her husband, Alexander Dolan
- The pair released a limited-edition silk scarf, with only 350 pieces available
- Germanotta and Dolan tell PEOPLE that the pieces to come from Natali Alexander will be rich with texture and have an androgynous feel
Natali Alexander is officially born.
The fashion brand — which is the combination of Natali Germanotta and Alexander Dolan’s names — launched in December with its first piece, a limited-edition silk scarf. The “romantic” piece, as Dolan describes it, is meant to evoke emotion and is a sign of what’s to come for the pair’s future collections.
“A lot of the inspiration was experiencing this dialectic between lightness and dark,” Germanotta tells PEOPLE exclusively. “We stayed with all of the neutral and colorful tones. We wanted it to really look illuminated, but also have some darkness in it. [It’s] really telling … an individual story about who you are and the journey of who you can become, it being mended in a stained glass fashion. When you’re looking at it at first glance, it looks symmetrical, but then when you look at it closer, no two pieces are alike. They’re all different. Every single facet, every line, the thickness, the color variation.”
The two chose a scarf to launch with because it’s so versatile, inclusive and can be weaved into future pieces seamlessly.
Natali Alexander
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Each Lumina Scarf is stamped with a number 1 to 350 to further exemplify just how rare each one is. Germanotta made sure to hold onto No. 13, as the number has a special meaning to her at this point in her life: It’s the number of years she and Dolan have been together.
“Doing this together, it’s really, really wonderful,” Germanotta says of launching another business with her husband. “Then getting to design with your partner and build something beautiful together. I made it a point to say that I wanted to keep number 13 because that was how many years we’ve been together. And it was just really important to me.”
The pair has been working on the scarf for about a year — roughly the same amount of time Natali Alexander has been an idea in the couple’s heads. Germanotta already runs her design house Topo Studio out of New York City and the duo recently opened their Las Vegas costume house On Stage Essentials. Adding another business to her résumé felt right for Germanotta, because not only has she always wanted her own label, but she’s constantly creating.
“There was kind of a moment where I pointed out that this collection and a ready-to-wear brand have been something that Natali [has] wanted to do for as long as I’ve known her,” Dolan shares. “But there kind of was a point where it’s like, okay, we’re doing a lot of things adjacent to that, but something just kind of clicked and I was like, ‘I think you should actually take some time and kind of focus on this.'”
Dolan and Germanotta — who is the younger sister of Lady Gaga (whose real name is Stefani Germanotta) — are focused on creating quality pieces for their future launches and don’t plan to adhere to any sort of structure or timeline with what they put out into the world. For them, it’s more important for things to be shared with the world “when they’re ready,” Dolan says.
“If possible, [we don’t want to] be so glued to the cycle of every year or every season, coming out with something new just for the sake of having something new,” Dolan explains. “[We want to make] sure things are special and unique.”
Germanotta is willing to slightly tease what’s to come for Natali Alexander, saying there will be androgyny and a lot of texture. She also wants to keep her label size-inclusive and do it the right way by fitting on models of all body types and sizes.
“I think they can expect … a lot of variation in looking at the same color, but in a lot of different materials, so that you can really see the difference between leather and satin and lace. And I think they can also expect to see a lot of the more curated details, like maybe a more unique button or unique hidden features with the piece,” she shares.
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Germanotta and Dolan are both excited for what’s to come for Natali Alexander and both express immense gratitude for their friends, family and budding customer base for helping them with the business and providing feedback already.
Lady Gaga, whom Germanotta has designed for multiple times throughout her career, shared the news of the scarf’s launch on her Instagram on Dec. 28, sending the website into a frenzy of traffic.
“It’s just been really, really amazing to … when you showcase a first piece, it’s a really vulnerable experience, and it’s been really amazing and healing in a way, too, to showcase this,” Germanotta says. “We wouldn’t be here without a lot of our family, our friends, our biggest supporters. We’re just really grateful.”