The Company: Origin & Obsessions
She is not Eros, she is what Eros worships. An romantic love letter dedicated to God, I have been dreaming of this collection since I was 7 years old. I grew up as a shy, exotic Indian girl who never seemed to fit in anywhere — A demure, wide-eyed peony, glued her mother’s legs because I thought everyone was staring at me. And so, after being the endless new girl at countless schools, forgetting languages, learning new ones, I understood from a very early age that fashion was ultimate instant language. It showed others who we were, our values, our heritage — before having to even speak. Done well with proper taste, fashion had the ability to make people respect you, fear you — & worship you.
Emerging from boarding school in Gujarat, while my parents were creating their American Dream, my childhood bloomed in the conservative small town of Augusta, Georgia. I had the honor of being surrounded by natural beauty in a lush plant nursery with undeniable Southern heritage & hospitality at the home of the Augusta National Golf Club, commonly known as the Masters Golf Tournament.
And so as we could afford it, I always dressed well, quite modest & conservative in my upbringing as father was always strict — but with time, my entire ethos has come to embrace { tasteful } Venusian sensuality & freedom. Raw femininity. An enigmantic wildness. Not the buttoned up, puritan traditional version of what the world says women should be — or the risqué, distracting, clamoring, feminist version — but something that dances between sultry & demure elegance. The kind of feminine beauty & allure that men go to war for, destroy empires over, and immortalize in marble & myth in her honor.
La Femme Mystíqa.
A woman who embraces her soft, ethereal lightness & her fierce, blasé darkness with a veiled cheekiness & subtlety.
The eternal rose.
It’s almost as if the Naturalist Inc story has been bubbling in my bloodline for ages, as my mother named me Shefali शेफाली which translates from Sanskrit into “the fragrance of a flower when it blooms at springtime.” Feminine Freshness. This is the living ethos I aim to deliver to the world, a timeless grace & quiet power of a rose, the ultimate fleur amongst fleurs who was so coveted, she had to grow thorns to protect her essence for those unworthy of her magic.
In this way, I always knew that luxury fashion & style would be my entire life. Many girls feel this, as our entire existence is about creation itself, the highest form of earthly existence. Undoubtedly, my soul felt called to birth a new movement, because what I was constantly seeking, I could never find.
I was raised with India’s soulful morality — with farmers’ prayers for a fair season, with stories of patience, resilience, and the dignity of doing good work, quietly. Women, always at the center. The ones who preserved culture. Who knew which root to crush for fever, which thread to use for mending, which songs summoned rain.
I never had financial means.
But I had vision, and I had faith.
So I asked my community:
Do you see what I see?
And somehow — they did.
They needed it too. Pure femininity.
It was double or nothing. I bet on myself, big.
For the first time. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. So if you’re still reading this — still here —know this: I am beyond grateful for your support.
But most of all, I am deeply grateful for my parents — who arrived in this country cleaning hotel rooms. Who scrubbed floors & fought their way to carve out a little life in this country. Who saved what little they had for us, only to say:
“This is the money. I want you to use it for your business.”
It was a lot. And I was broke. So I was speechless. They were giving me a chance they never got in their wildest dreams.
So this — all of this — is to make them proud.
Because craftsmanship, spirituality, agriculture, and family are not outdated. They are the roots the nostalgic future.
And if I can help revive that — through a dress, through a legging, through a sense, a feeling — then I’ve done something worthy.
Luckily, when hard work meets relentless passion, God sends the perfect people at the perfect time to support us. As we climb with courage, we don’t have to see the whole staircase — only the next step.
What I lacked, I made up for in enthusiasm, heart & vision — Humility. The hunger to become the best, choosing growth over ego's naive folly.
As it happens, I was born a creator with a keen eye with very specific tastes, a sharp eye & uncommon discernment about what I think is distinctively cool & elegant.
I think like stylist, for femininity, practicality, comfort, effortlessness & relaxed elegance. Understanding a woman's ever-changing body — like the phases of the moon — is a fundamental aspect of my work.
This is why my work is eternally inspired by the crème de la crème of rich, ancient cultures — artists, philosophers & casanovas. What fascinates me the most, however, is the way our ancestors lived traditionally — Deeply embedded in the wisdom of Nature — The Art de Vivre — which permeated every intentional, conscious choice they made.
From 100% pure fabric selection, to Feng Shui, to aligning ourselves with Celestial Bodies and healing our bodies with the frequencies, rhythms & foods of Nature.
Before formal education, I had been designing with tailors in Indian markets, shopping for silks, trims & dangly sparkles in the most remote villages, to the bazaars of Mumbai & Jaipur.
As my obsession grew, my immigrant parents believed in my delusions enough to pay for expensive colleges & actually supported my vision. Rare. With over 10+ years of formal experience in the ruthless fashion industry, I had the pleasure of being technically trained at Parson’s New School of Design — With practical, hands-on experience being a slave to the garment district — designing for iconic brands such as Ralph Lauren Runway, Purple Label, Vera Wang, Cushnie et Ochs, Oscar De La Renta, coming back to designing at Augusta National Golf Club, New York Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, and for contributing editors to Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Bergdorf Goodman. I worked backstage New York Fashion Week styling Russian Models & also sat front row with top magazine editors & stylists, to understand the industry from A-Z.
It was truly the fantasy in my early 20s... until I realized I was living in the Matrix — There was something missing in this industry, it felt cold, contrived & cruel, it lacked purity. It was an altar with no gods. Glossy, glamorous — but soulless. I was starving in satin and the industry was sucking my soul dry like a dementor. I knew we all deserved more.
Another reason I left NYC — I adored fashion — but I hated fast fashion & The Devil Wears Prada life. I knew on the inside, people were unhappy, losing their life force energies — precious jing. There was no Holistic aspect of Fashion in NYC at the time. I was eating Sweetgreen salads everyday & getting fresh juices at my local Bodega — but I was more disconnected from Nature than I ever had been in the Concrete Jungle.
I also deeply wanted to fall in love… I believe this is the reason we are here, on Earth School. To love & be loved.
I became bound to the very altar I once worshipped — thread and needle turned to chains & slavery.
Experiencing my own full body burnout, call it Adrenal Fatigue, or just an exhaustion from abandoning my true essence in a soul-sucking job where I was underpaid & overworked. My health suffered immensely. My hair fell out, I lost 15 lbs without trying because I simply didn’t have time to eat.
I turned to Eastern medicine for natural, holistic answers to get to the root of my ailments because the only thing western medicine was offering me was a pill, a band-aid fix.
Surely, there was more to life than this hamster wheel of indoctrination?
Where was the soul? I had the spark, I could see where fashion was missing a holistic lens — I knew that others needed a revival too.
I finally had the sense to quit, when I finally said “enough is enough” my health matters more than anything else. Fast forward 3 years, I’ve healed myself, become certified as a Holistic Health Coach in Ayurveda, deep diving into natural Traditional Chinese Medicine to get to the root of what was so deeply insidious about the Western Health System. In this healing season, I coached 1:1 & groups of women in reviving their fertility, hormones & health.
The pivot wasn’t mine to claim — I just followed the scent of something sacred. I do what God tells me to do. I just show up at your door, like a fluffy little kitty.
I so deeply hated anything artificial. Anything fake. Fake friends, fake food, fake handbags, fake jewelry, fake online presences marketing individuals as larger than life. “Fake it until you make it.” I loathed it.
The rags to riches stories spoke to my soul. Better to be hated for being who you truly are, then loved for what you are not.
I suppose this hatred of the fake & constant yearning for the pure thing — brought about the conception of Naturalist Inc.
Growing up in boarding school in India, I had tasted real food at an early age by the grace of god & my great grandparents who were farmers.
In contrast, whatever they were feeding us in Western convention food & water was poison at best — Disrupting mental health & fertility.
It seems obvious that what we put inside our bodies is as equally important as what we put outside of our bodies — Fabrics.
At this intersection, I also deeply missed my old artsy life — The creativity. I missed being my own muse. I had forgotten my own joie de vivre, like we all do — The Divinity & spark within.
I was the unfinished symphony — too much of an out of box, curious thinker for medicine & a jack-of-all-trades for fashion.
I need something deeper. More holy. More comfortable, honestly. I hated tight, restrictive clothing. It felt so paradoxical, laying there on an acupucture table, paying for them to open your bodily channels, all while you have chosen to spend $150 on a pair of spandex leggings that cut off your circulation. The irony was never lost upon me.
The opium fashion fiend artist within longed for more meaning, softness, myth. For marrow. For something that encapsulated the 360 degree approach of health, fashion & heritage.
As always, God gave me a glimmer of hope. Frustrated with modern offerings in active, contemporary & luxury — I was always contorting & sewing my own flair into looks, but nothing was ever — Enough. The quality of clothing had been declining since the 2000s in every sense of the word.
In our pursuit of modernity & efficiency, we traded simplicity for speed & contrived convenience. Petroleum replaced the pastoral — even at luxury price points. We diluted handmade intimacy for mass-made artifice.
We were promised innovation. What we received was poison — not the divine intoxication of Bacchanalia, but the dulling of the senses. A castration from source, from ourselves.
Clothing became louder, cheaper, faster —
but not finer. Not kinder. Not wiser.
And so,
Naturalist Inc is a philosophy.
An ethos.
A romantic love letter, dedicated to God.
A memoir of my endless Aquamarine summer.
This is where our story begins — not with a trend, but with a remembering.
Because the truth is, we know that elegance was never about the silky dress, it was about being remembered in their hearts.
We know that raw athleticism moves like la féline in cotton jersey. We know that the vibration of pure linen attracts the Queen bees.
True luxury has always been & will always be relaxed, genuine, cozy, effortlessly chic — & natural.
Like a kid in a candy store, this is what lights me up.
I know that it is up to me as a visual artist, a creative dream concoctor, a cinematic visionary with diamond eyes — clairvoyant, cutting — I saw through the shimmer to the soul of the matter. Or its absence.
I've always known there would be a revolution in my bones, the ancestors told me — but I didn't know I would be starting it.
Revolutionary meets Monarch.
It's quite poetic.
Because how can we change the polarity of the world without a grassroots movement of style & refinement?
With time & genuine effort, the vision only becomes more crystalline & sharp.
Like many, I find Couture & Runway to be exquisitely beautiful, deserving the utmost respect. I’ve been invited to exclusive shows at fashion week & admired the statuesque art with editors of Vogue, but I personally don’t live in those museum-esque clothes because they are not practical for my lifestyle. To me, there is no luxury without comfort & ease.
Pure, genuine, honest living has bones. Clothing with a purpose. Remembering the woman in the nuances — Not just the glamorized highlight reels, but seamlessly integrating into the minutia of casual, cozy, chic everyday life.
Romanticizing the elegance of a slow life, one of delicate presence, poetry, undone refinement, grace that doesn’t beg to be seen with old world charm. She is the girl that dances between the kitchen & in the ballrooms — on the beach, the motorcycle rendezvous — & everything in between, but she is defined by none of it.
She has the heart that sees the beauty & je ne sais quoi of a flower, a fluffy kitty, museum or a bibliothèque. Sitting at a café, after getting dressed in 15 minutes flat, wearing 100% Linen & cotton jersey in her bag because she may be invited to play tennis later. I believe you know her. Perhaps, she’s your new friend at pilates or dance.
She is a rare jewel that doesn’t care about being seen & she knows the best parties are the ones you don’t bring your camera to — The only accessory she needs is her casual crown tiara, a unique signature, maybe a silver bikini in her purse because you never know xx
Secrets, silks, serenity & safety in body skimming, never ultra-tight, as to respect the chi flow — she wears looser, figure flattering feminine silhouettes. I find that to be the most sexy, for the female form is pure ecstasy & should be dressed delicately.
So, I decided to become the standard I so deeply desired — To bring the modern audience sphinxlike soirée of elevated style, something you can be proud of your daughter wearing to see the grandparents & representing the family name at a business event, or at the farmer’s market.
When our femininity is pure { not simply fairy dust, ruffles, or hardcore, but naturally sacred in its devotional flow & wildness } — It inspires men to elevate. Modern generations have lost passion & eros because there is nothing to aspire towards. It dampens the fire of the soul, when true beauty should eternally keep the joie de vivre sauce shimmering. Only romance, poetry & true feminine dignity can save us. It all starts with the women holding themselves & others to the highest calibre of living & loving.
More. Sparkle.
I found myself always being the belle of the ball, evoking reverence — not noise, when I wore traditional Indian garments, because I moved & sparkled like a princess, but clearly, this wasn’t appropriate for my American casual, daily life. And so, I wanted to capture that shimmering joie de vivre & graceful elegance that turns heads, in a quiet, pragmatic manner. With real clothes that are stunning, versatile, contemporary & simultaneously exude the fluid essence of Yin.
The icing on the cake to fake modern foods was the plastic chemicals tightly suffocating our bodies in a trend called “Athleisure.” It seemed that the general population was eating chemicals & wearing micro-plastics unknowingly — They were asleep.
Meanwhile, I was dreaming of a world where I could wear sheer french silk chiffons & organic linens adorned with dangly earrings & bangles in antique diamonds — The ancestral art of adornment.
The reason traditional clothing is 100% Natural fabrics, loose, flowy, innocently erotic — is because it supports the body's natural flow & movement.
Not only do virgin fabrics improve your health & raise your vibrational frequency but feminine silhouettes in natural fabrics are pleasing to the eye.
Even the children feel it.
I had the impression that my niche was rare, bespoke, quite innovative — For no one in the industry was creating a brand that was both sportswear & leisurewear that you could wear to a casual dinner & feel gorgeous in. So, I was firmly convinced that the idea of producing high-quality garments that reflected the femme hourglass shape would be transformational. For over 20 years, I’ve listened to women intimately — in dressing rooms & closets as a stylist, designer and pre-post pregnancy as a health coach — their fears, sensitivities, desires, their figures, their frequencies. I always knew it would come back to my roots, as every story naturally returns inwards, to the mother, the soil, the heart, the soul — God.
I never thought it would be such a wild journey, it’s even better than I dreamed.
It is important to note, that I do live in a modern world & appreciate the technology that synthetic fibers such as 2% Lycra can give us when it comes to performance. So with all things in life, I follow the 80/20 Rule. I choose the absolute best when I can — organic foods, fabrics — and happily indulge where I must, a lot of naughty dessert, honey, rendezvous — and a few other things I cannot mention. Ooh la la.
That's why my brand is called Natural-ist Inc and not merely, Au Natural.
The ultimate indicator of vibrant health is freedom, fun & intuition. The ability to have a glass of wine a la piscine with good company, not being deathly afraid of endocrine disruptors & seed oils. We do our best to nourish with the finest at home, dance with the devil when we're out because our spiritual vitality is what matters above all, so we must transcend the fear & find our center.
We can have both. Many of us are highly spiritual, holistic, traditional individuals that want to live within modern society, not as a monk in the wilderness or as a milk-maid churning butter.
I believe in minimal or no-makeup & natural hair — to let the proper breeding speak for itself. However, a vice I will never give up is having a polished, killer manicure.
What keeps the fire of passion alive in my belly is the sheer fact that I need Women to feel like goddesses again. To honor the Feminine Energy in its purest form — Women are here to play, be silly, laugh.
When we look regal, soft, feminine, flirty & modest — We garner the utmost respect. People don’t even realize why they treat you as if you are on a pedestal — It’s a primal instinct.
I created Naturalist to dazzle with dignity — So her elegance can linger in someone’s memory. To strike this delicate balance of heritage, freshness, mystery, lightness, innocence & sex appeal without an ounce of effort.
Silks, georgettes, chiffons, linens & pure organic cottons compliment the Woman's natural hourglass figure. When women become more feminine — Men are inspired to become more masculine.
The essence of femininity is about being dynamic, fluid, the ability to play many roles: The ingenue, the siren, the séduisante, the mother & the muse — for the goddess has many forms.
If more Women can reconnect with gardens, healing, water, the Moon & slow living — The Yin elements of life — Rest & softness, they too will remember that we are here to play — not be taken so seriously, because we are here to enjoyyy & create, not to become commodities.
To laugh, find pleasure, be beautiful & enrich the lives of our community — to multiply & nurture. To be the inspiring muses, to create from a place of inspiration, not survival. To live with an open heart & become the magnet for romance you so deeply desire.
Simply put, I genuinely love life — I care about it’s people, its culture, the land, the ocean. I want it to be better for everyone & so as a designer, innovator & leader, I take that responsibility very seriously.
Welcome to the modern day culmination of my dream world: Organic Living, Metaphysical Spirituality, The Queen of The Silk Road & Ancient Magic rooted deeply in Nature — The ultimate designer.
I am in love with Style, not fashion. I’ve seen street vendors with more authentic style than millionaires. I believe in choosing peace and comfort over & over. In proudly passing down your jewels & dresses to your daughters, creating quality, craftsmanship & moral integrity that will be passed down through generations of your bloodline.
I believe in honesty & authentically being yourself in any room you walk into. Choosing peace over & over again. That’s why I wake up with a smile & go to bed with a smile. If you buy less & choose Naturalist Inc — I hope you do too.
Effortless elegance & cool — Easy, Breezy, Interesting, Old-worldly, Cosmopolitan, Relaxed, Chic — Magic.
Therefore, Naturalist Inc is a tale of everyday elegance — La Séduisante that lives within every woman — Her secret fantasies & untold longings — the tangible wardrobe of her vulnerability, sensuality, magnetism & raw instinct.
Welcome to the an amalgamation of my spiritual soul, from India, to the Southern Americana, to cosmopolitan New York City, to effortless esteemed European style. A journey of healing from burnout to creating vibrant, luminous immortality.
My dad said my vision has always been too grand, but I’ve always believed that to do something special you have to focus on a single project that is your lifelong dream — & that is exactly what I sought out to do: to create a sort of Dream Fantasy. A sultry mirage. An oasis in the dessert { or at the gym }
A certain savoir-faire. Paradigm shift. Reflecting the zeitgeist & The New Future. Utopian shenanigans.
The philosophy & collection is curated to cultivate an air of Mystérieuse — A bit of playful cheekiness, easy, breezy, here to play like la féline & lounge like la panthère.
Because what is the role of a woman, if not to add mysticism, colorful beauty & romance to the cinematic experience on Earth?
Life, after all, is not a dress rehearsal. It is meant to be devoured like a juicy mango.
Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to dream?
I’m so happy you’re here.
xx
Love, Shefali
La Femme Mystíqa.
Naturalist Inc.