Ana Rosa, Flagship Showroom Manager at Natuzzi Italia

Meet Ana Rosa, Flagship Showroom Manager at Natuzzi Italia, an award-winning furniture and décor store at 105 Madison Avenue and 30th Street in the neighborhood’s vibrant design district. Rosa reveals about her leadership role at the international business brand: “I have a unique opportunity to create a person’s environment in their most sacred space, their home.”

1. Natuzzi Italia is a global luxury designer of Made in Italy furniture and décor. The NYC flagship store had its debut in the neighborhood in 2014. Share with us your role as the location’s showroom manager and what aspect of your job excites you most?

I believe my general role is to ensure my team and I are true brand ambassadors of Natuzzi in New York City. When a client enters our showroom, they should feel immediately comfortable, greeted with warmth, and feel our passion for the heritage of what Mr. Natuzzi envisioned as a home lifestyle company.

My personal true passion in retail over 20 years has been the opportunity to engage with people from all over the world, always finding an avenue of similarities within our lives while interacting for short or long moments together. I help clients narrow a curated design of what they imagine will be where they’ll create memories of happiness, serenity, or simply a representation of who they are as an individual within their surroundings.

2. As the pandemic endured, this inspired people to rethink their living spaces as they spent more time at home. For the people looking for inspiration on home décor and furnishings, what sets your brand apart from others?

It’s our approach of blending design, function, materials, and colors to create harmonious living for our consumers. As an Italian company, the Mediterranean culture is certainly the starting point of the inspirational journey of every Natuzzi Italia creation. It is the landscape of the soul, a cosmopolitan soul, where a perpetual intermingling has generated boundless beauty and a lifestyle that continues to be an inspiration for many.

3. Tell us about Natuzzi Italia’s bestselling collections. What selections are trending with customers and what are your personal favorites?

The ability to adapt to change is not only a virtue requested of people: our furnishings are also required to become more “versatile,” capable of meeting different needs, reinventing themselves continuously. This is particularly true of the sofa, an icon of the Natuzzi style. Today more than ever, everything revolves around this item of furniture—social occasions, conversation, reading, music, relaxation, work, and study. While the interior spaces of our homes adapt to our new day-today lives, the sofa becomes the embodiment of our new living priorities, functionality, and continuity between spaces, which it interprets with a style that never fails to amaze. Centerpiece of an interior design story enriched daily with new characters—side tables, armchairs, bookcases, desks, sideboards, bar furniture—that share the same mission: to live, and allow you to live, in harmony.

4. What design tips do you typically offer to Natuzzi Italia clientele looking to reinvent their living spaces?

We begin our design process with our clientele by understanding how the space will be enjoyed. My philosophy is to incorporate, as much as possible, the important pieces already owned by the client, then offering a variety of options within our collections that will harmonize and give synergy to their home. We often visit locations before and during the delivery of their new furniture to ensure a seamless transition of a Natuzzi-styled home.

5. Before your arrival at Natuzzi Italia, you studied art and have held leadership posts in retail. What inspired you to pursue a career in retail?

It wasn’t my intention to pursue a career in retail, my passion is art. Initially, many moons ago, I thought I’d be a foreign language teacher. I never envisioned earning a living in fashion or design. Back in the ’80s it didn’t seem like a viable earning for me. I am a creative person with a specific instinctual skill of seeing many design factors compiled in a single shot. I also happen to truly enjoy talking to people. It may seem remedial to have this interest, but my sincerity translates and inspires anyone I interact with in my life. It’s contagious when you’re excited about what you do or can visualize it to fruition.

6. When you’re not at Natuzzi Italia, how do you like to spend your time in the neighborhood?

I get coffee and scones from Blank Slate Coffee + Kitchen weekly and they give local businesses 10% off. I love Scarpetta for dinner. Also, BLACKBARN Restaurant is my go-to place for cocktails after work. It’s lively inside and outside. When I want a little break in my week or month, I walk to the Morgan Library & Museum. It’s near the showroom and it gives me a sense of peace with visual pleasure. I suppose because I’m an art aficionado. The convenience of walking out of my showroom on 30th Street to a cultural event is incredible! Nothing beats picking up a Citi Bike and heading to an adventure for the day.

7. Finally, choose three words to describe Flatiron and NoMad.

Innovative. Cool. Inspiring.

Header & Thumbnail Photo Credit: Chris Weidenbach