Kate Spade

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The logo of the company kate spade

Kate Spade (* December 24, 1962 as Katherine Noel Brosnahan in Kansas City , Missouri ; † June 5, 2018 in New York City ) was an American designer and namesake and co-owner of the fashion company she co-founded, whose high-priced handbags were made by the television series Sex and the City became internationally known.

Life and company history

Spade grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. After studying journalism and five years in the accessories department at Mademoiselle magazine in Manhattan, she founded the label "kate spade handbags" in 1993 together with her future husband Andy Spade, a former advertising manager and brother of David Spade ; they opened the first store in 1996 in Soho , New York. Kate acted as designer, Andy as CEO .

In the beginning they mainly created handbags. In 2002, Kate Spade launched “kate spade beauty”, a perfume and cosmetics series, together with Estée Lauder . Nowadays, shoes, clothing, glasses, perfumes, accessories, crockery, stationery and address books for women are also sold under the kate spade brand. Distinguishing features of the brand include colorful designs, decorations with bows, etc., playful (animal) motifs and flower and dotted patterns.

From 1997 onwards, the women's brand kate spade was joined by its counterpart for men: jack spade , where the first name was freely chosen. In 1999 the men's brand was officially established. As a result, besides bags of all kinds, jack spade also offered small leather goods and men's clothing. The jack spade brand had its own website and its own boutiques.

In 2004 the fashion magazine Women's Wear Daily reported sales of $ 125 million. The Neiman Marcus Group Inc., which had acquired a 56% stake in kate spade in 1999, paid out Kate and Andy Spade in 2006 and sold the kate spade brand in November 2006 for $ 125 million to Liz Claiborne Inc. Kate and Andy Spade left then the company. In 2014, the company founded by Spade was merged into Kate Spade & Company .

In November 2015, Spade founded their own brand of accessories called Frances Valentine in New York with her husband Andy, with whom she had a daughter in 2005, and two friends . The designer changed her own name to Katherine Noel Frances Valentine Brosnahan Spade. Rachel Brosnahan is the daughter of Kate Spade's brother and thus her niece. Spade and her husband Andy, who had been married since 1994, had been separated since the summer of 2017.

On June 5, 2018, Spade was found dead in her New York City apartment. Police confirmed to the New York Times that there was a suicide note there.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Kansas City Star : Kate Spade suffered years of mental illness, sister says. Suicide 'not unexpected' , accessed June 9, 2018
  2. ↑ Kate Spade, fashion designer, found dead at 55. In: bbc.co.uk. June 5, 2018, accessed June 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Jack Spade. (No longer available online.) In: textilwirtschaft.de . February 10, 2011, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 6, 2018 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.textilwirtschaft.de
  4. ↑ Kate and Andy Spade leave the accessories brand Kate Spade. (No longer available online.) In: textilwirtschaft.de. August 9, 2007, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 6, 2018 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.textilwirtschaft.de
  5. ↑ Fashion designer Kate Spade found dead in New York . In: The Guardian , June 5, 2018, accessed June 6, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Spade, Kate
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fashion designer
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 2018
Place of death New York City