Famed handbag designer Kate Spade was found dead in an apparent suicide on Tuesday morning in her Upper East Side apartment, the Associated Press reported, citing law-enforcement officials. She was 55.
Spade leaves behind husband Andy Spade and a 13-year old daughter, Frances Beatrix Spade.
Kate Spade launched her namesake brand in 1993, a year before she married her husband. Over the following years, the couple ran the business together out of their apartment in Tribeca, transforming it into a $27 million business by 1998.
“The reason I started making handbags was because of Andy’s suggestion. After moving through a number of positions, I had been promoted to senior fashion editor after six years at Mademoiselle magazine. I wasn’t sure the next step was one I wanted to make. Andy just said, ‘You know, I think we should start something,'” she told CNN Money in 2003.
“We had so many boxes in our 1,800-square-foot loft during shipping time that we had a path from the bedroom to the bathroom. It was hot. We had no air conditioning, and it was August. We had put everything into this. I put in my 401(k) money. We didn’t know for sure that the business was going to work,” Andy Spade told CNN Money.
The brand became as popular and exclusive as legacy designer brands such as Gucci. Sales jumped from $100,000 in 1993 to $1.5 million in 1995 and to $27 million in 1998.
“The purses became something of a handshake,” Wall Street Journal fashion reporter Christina Binkley told Racked in 2016. “When two women met and saw they were both holding Kate Spade bags, they’d nod at each other and understand they were on the same page. It was very chic.”
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