SPADE, KATE
BRAND AND FASHION DESIGNER, S
KATE SPADE, AMERICAN HANDBAG DESIGNER (1962-2018)
Kate Spade was an American handbag designer. Notably, preferred by girls for her clean but fashionable line of hers, which she started in 1993. Significantly, as a Journalist, she worked on accessories for Mademoiselle magazine.
ORIGINS
She decided to launch a line of nylon bags of all colors and signed them with a small white label. After only two years, she gets the award for best accessories designer. Later she indulged herself with fabrics, models, and colors, always maintaining a simple, modern, and functional style. From sporty and practical bags, her business has also extended to leather goods, travel accessories, and stationery.
In 1999 she launched the footwear line, two years after the eyewear collection, and at the same time, Estée Lauder presented the line of beauty products signed by the designer. Subsequently, she debuts the Kate Spade Eau de parfum, the aromas that characterize the fragrance recall the flowers that the designer prefers: gardenia, jasmine, tuberose, and fresh lily of the valley.
Aid to artisans, in 2002, an international non-profit organization for the promotion and creation of economic opportunities in the fashion field, called the designer to curate a course in Cambodia. She accepts with enthusiasm, recognizing the importance that this initiative would have on the social and economic state of the country. Walid Halabi, a member of the house’s development department spends three weeks teaching basic tailoring techniques to several artisans. The designer renews her availability for future initiatives organized by Aid to artisans.
In June 2003, the seventh American boutique opens in the historic district of Georgetown: bags, shoes, eyewear, beauty products, and accessories are displayed in this large space alongside the collections of accessories for men created by Jack Spade, business partner and companion of the stylist. The project is signed by the architect Rogers Marvel who conceived it by dividing it into three distinct sections to underline the basic concepts that the designer wants to communicate: the timeless, the distinctiveness, and the unexpected.
THE SALE OF KATE SPADE NEW YORK
In 2006 the designer decided to sell her company, Kate Spade New York and for years she devoted herself exclusively to the family. In 2016 she returned to the world of fashion, launching, together with Paola Venturi, a line of made-in-Italy accessories that takes the name of her daughter Frances Valentine.
Kate Spade was found dead in 2018 in her Park Avenue apartment in New York.
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