Kate Spade Kate Spade, dead at age 55 of an apparent suicide
- Thread starter Love Of My Life
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
Just what I was thinking when I read the article. Also, in the last paragraph she says, "She was a dear little person." I don't know, maybe that's the way she speaks, but "dear little person" makes me feel like she's minimizing what Kate Spade was.
Jealousy probably abounds & to have a sister like this is no asset. She is what I would call a b**ch
And to not respect the family is out of bounds by making a statement when you have been estranged for 10 years has no credibility
& says a lot more about herself that she realizes..
Last edited:
The sister revealed more about herself with those patronizing remarks than she knows. Right there I can tell she's always felt superior to her younger sister and she wants to make sure everyone knows it now. She appears to be a spiteful, petty woman trying hard to portray herself as the compassionate, sane one.
I feel compelled to correct the sister—stress doesn’t lead to bipolar disorder. It’s a chemical imbalance. I’ve known women who had it and self-medicated with alcohol. One od’d and another hanged herself. It’s just tragic every time I hear about something like this.
I hope Kate is at peace. Her family will need lots of help and compassion.
I hope Kate is at peace. Her family will need lots of help and compassion.
Andy Spade on Kate Spade’s Death: ‘There Was No Indication and No Warning’
The husband of the designer Kate Spade, who died of what police characterized as suicide, said on Wednesday that she had suffered from severe depression and acknowledged that they had been living apart for the last 10 months.
The husband, Andy Spade, said there were no plans to divorce. Mr. Spade was speaking publicly for the first time since her death was announced on Tuesday.
Kate Spade, with her husband and business partner, built an idea about a handbag into what became a billion dollar brand, marked by an optimism that resonated deeply with many women for almost three decades.
Mr. Spade said that though his wife had suffered from anxiety at points during their relationship and marriage, her serious bouts of depression only began about six years ago, at the age of 49.
“Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years. She was actively seeking help and working closely with her doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives. We were in touch with her the night before and she sounded happy. There was no indication and no warning that she would do this. It was a complete shock. And it clearly wasn’t her. There were personal demons she was battling,” he said.
Mr. and Ms. Spade were married 24 years ago and started the brand Kate Spade together in 1993 and the brand Frances Valentine in 2016. According to Mr. Spade, they maintained different apartments a few blocks from each other, continued to take vacations together, and their daughter, Frances Beatrix, split her time between them.
She was with her father the night of her mother’s death.
He also said neither he nor anyone else in the family had been shown the note left by Ms. Spade, but had read about it in media accounts.
“I am appalled that a private message to my daughter has been so heartlessly shared with the media,” said Mr. Spade.
According to the police, the note addressed the couple’s daughter, expressing that she should not feel at fault.
Mr. Spade rebutted reports that it was Mr. Spade’s desire to end his marriage that caused his wife’s depression. “We were not legally separated, and never even discussed divorce. We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how. We were together for 35 years. We loved each other very much and simply needed a break,” he said.
Ms. Spade’s older sister, Reta Saffo, told the Kansas City Star that Ms. Spade’s suicide was “not unexpected” and that her sister had refused to get treatment for her depression because of fear it might damage her brand.
However, Ms. Spade’s older brother, Earl Brosnahan, said Ms. Saffo had been estranged from the rest of the family for more than 10 years, to the extent that she had not attended their mother’s funeral in 2010. (Ms. Saffo did not respond to messages left at her home number.) Though he acknowledged Ms. Spade had been in sporadic contact with Ms. Saffo in recent years — the only one of the six siblings to speak to Ms. Saffo — he said he was taken aback that Ms. Saffo “should surface now with very definitive statements that I think are grossly inaccurate” and attributed the contact between them to Ms. Spade’s personality.
“It was Katy’s way to be accessible and available to everyone,” he said.
Both Mr. Brosnahan and Elyce Arons — Ms. Arons became close friends with Ms. Spade as an 18-year-old at the University of Kansas and later became her business partner in both Kate Spade and Frances Valentine — said they had been aware of Ms. Spade’s depression and the separation in her marriage.
Mr. Brosnahan said he and Ms. Spade had discussed “her sadness, which is what we liked to call it.” He said he became aware of it about 18 months ago. Though he said he and his sister often spoke several times a day, it sometimes became difficult to get her on the phone. He said he had dinner with her a week before her death, and “she was still talking very much about the future and collaborating with Andy on projects for Frances Valentine.”
Mr. Brosnahan said they had not discussed the subject of divorce, though he did believe some of her sadness derived from having grown apart from her husband. Ms. Arons, who worked with both Mr. and Ms. Spade during the period they were separating, said they continued to work well together. “It was a time in the marriage when it was right for them to be apart,” she said. “They both agreed to it. They loved each other very much.”
“Katy was very happy most of the time, the funniest person in the world, and sometimes she would get really sad,” Ms. Arons continued. She said she watched her friend’s condition develop “slowly, over time. We would talk a lot about it, and end up laughing,” she said.
“She really felt she could power through it on her own,” she said. Sometimes the subject came up in the context of news of a celebrity suicide and, Ms. Arons said, “she’d say to me, ‘I would never do that. I would never do that. I would never do that,’ and I believed her.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/style/kate-spade-husband-andy-spade.html
The husband of the designer Kate Spade, who died of what police characterized as suicide, said on Wednesday that she had suffered from severe depression and acknowledged that they had been living apart for the last 10 months.
The husband, Andy Spade, said there were no plans to divorce. Mr. Spade was speaking publicly for the first time since her death was announced on Tuesday.
Kate Spade, with her husband and business partner, built an idea about a handbag into what became a billion dollar brand, marked by an optimism that resonated deeply with many women for almost three decades.
Mr. Spade said that though his wife had suffered from anxiety at points during their relationship and marriage, her serious bouts of depression only began about six years ago, at the age of 49.
“Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years. She was actively seeking help and working closely with her doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives. We were in touch with her the night before and she sounded happy. There was no indication and no warning that she would do this. It was a complete shock. And it clearly wasn’t her. There were personal demons she was battling,” he said.
Mr. and Ms. Spade were married 24 years ago and started the brand Kate Spade together in 1993 and the brand Frances Valentine in 2016. According to Mr. Spade, they maintained different apartments a few blocks from each other, continued to take vacations together, and their daughter, Frances Beatrix, split her time between them.
She was with her father the night of her mother’s death.
He also said neither he nor anyone else in the family had been shown the note left by Ms. Spade, but had read about it in media accounts.
“I am appalled that a private message to my daughter has been so heartlessly shared with the media,” said Mr. Spade.
According to the police, the note addressed the couple’s daughter, expressing that she should not feel at fault.
Mr. Spade rebutted reports that it was Mr. Spade’s desire to end his marriage that caused his wife’s depression. “We were not legally separated, and never even discussed divorce. We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how. We were together for 35 years. We loved each other very much and simply needed a break,” he said.
Ms. Spade’s older sister, Reta Saffo, told the Kansas City Star that Ms. Spade’s suicide was “not unexpected” and that her sister had refused to get treatment for her depression because of fear it might damage her brand.
However, Ms. Spade’s older brother, Earl Brosnahan, said Ms. Saffo had been estranged from the rest of the family for more than 10 years, to the extent that she had not attended their mother’s funeral in 2010. (Ms. Saffo did not respond to messages left at her home number.) Though he acknowledged Ms. Spade had been in sporadic contact with Ms. Saffo in recent years — the only one of the six siblings to speak to Ms. Saffo — he said he was taken aback that Ms. Saffo “should surface now with very definitive statements that I think are grossly inaccurate” and attributed the contact between them to Ms. Spade’s personality.
“It was Katy’s way to be accessible and available to everyone,” he said.
Both Mr. Brosnahan and Elyce Arons — Ms. Arons became close friends with Ms. Spade as an 18-year-old at the University of Kansas and later became her business partner in both Kate Spade and Frances Valentine — said they had been aware of Ms. Spade’s depression and the separation in her marriage.
Mr. Brosnahan said he and Ms. Spade had discussed “her sadness, which is what we liked to call it.” He said he became aware of it about 18 months ago. Though he said he and his sister often spoke several times a day, it sometimes became difficult to get her on the phone. He said he had dinner with her a week before her death, and “she was still talking very much about the future and collaborating with Andy on projects for Frances Valentine.”
Mr. Brosnahan said they had not discussed the subject of divorce, though he did believe some of her sadness derived from having grown apart from her husband. Ms. Arons, who worked with both Mr. and Ms. Spade during the period they were separating, said they continued to work well together. “It was a time in the marriage when it was right for them to be apart,” she said. “They both agreed to it. They loved each other very much.”
“Katy was very happy most of the time, the funniest person in the world, and sometimes she would get really sad,” Ms. Arons continued. She said she watched her friend’s condition develop “slowly, over time. We would talk a lot about it, and end up laughing,” she said.
“She really felt she could power through it on her own,” she said. Sometimes the subject came up in the context of news of a celebrity suicide and, Ms. Arons said, “she’d say to me, ‘I would never do that. I would never do that. I would never do that,’ and I believed her.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/style/kate-spade-husband-andy-spade.html
Brené Brown on Kate Spade's death:
Everyone Has A Story
Like many of you, I am a big Kate Spade fan. My first bag was a giraffe-print “Sam bag” – it took me six months to save enough money to buy it. I carried it every single day for two years. I still wear her jewelry, use her stationary, and love her clothes.
The news of her death was a cruel reminder about the realities of depression and anxiety, and about the dangerous stories that we make up about those “successful” people who don’t know anything about pain and never need help. I say dangerous because they’re never true.
Everyone has a story or a struggle that will break your heart. And, if we’re really paying attention, most people have a story that will bring us to our knees.
You would think the universal nature of struggle would make it easier for all of us to ask for help, but in a culture of scarcity and perfectionism, there can still be so much shame around reaching out, especially if we’re not raised to understand the irreducible nature of human need.
We can encourage our children to ask for help; however, if they don’t see us reaching out for support and modeling that behavior, they will instead attach value to never needing help.
We also send strong messages to the people around us, including our children, friends, and employees, when they ask for help, and in return, we treat them differently — as if they are now less reliable, competent, or productive.
And, when we respond to a tragedy like this one with unfounded comments and criticism about how someone who most of us didn’t know at all managed her struggle, her meds, her work, her family – whatever the focus – we help create that culture where it feels like help-seeking just opens us up to more pain and judgment.
To know pain is human. To need is human. And, no amount of money, influence, resources, or sheer determination will change our physical, emotional, and spiritual dependence on others.
Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re very reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve divided the world into “those who offer help” and “those who need help.” The truth is that we are both. Need is the most beautiful compact between humans.
https://brenebrown.com/blog/2018/06/07/everyone-has-a-story/
Everyone Has A Story
Like many of you, I am a big Kate Spade fan. My first bag was a giraffe-print “Sam bag” – it took me six months to save enough money to buy it. I carried it every single day for two years. I still wear her jewelry, use her stationary, and love her clothes.
The news of her death was a cruel reminder about the realities of depression and anxiety, and about the dangerous stories that we make up about those “successful” people who don’t know anything about pain and never need help. I say dangerous because they’re never true.
Everyone has a story or a struggle that will break your heart. And, if we’re really paying attention, most people have a story that will bring us to our knees.
You would think the universal nature of struggle would make it easier for all of us to ask for help, but in a culture of scarcity and perfectionism, there can still be so much shame around reaching out, especially if we’re not raised to understand the irreducible nature of human need.
We can encourage our children to ask for help; however, if they don’t see us reaching out for support and modeling that behavior, they will instead attach value to never needing help.
We also send strong messages to the people around us, including our children, friends, and employees, when they ask for help, and in return, we treat them differently — as if they are now less reliable, competent, or productive.
And, when we respond to a tragedy like this one with unfounded comments and criticism about how someone who most of us didn’t know at all managed her struggle, her meds, her work, her family – whatever the focus – we help create that culture where it feels like help-seeking just opens us up to more pain and judgment.
To know pain is human. To need is human. And, no amount of money, influence, resources, or sheer determination will change our physical, emotional, and spiritual dependence on others.
Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re very reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve divided the world into “those who offer help” and “those who need help.” The truth is that we are both. Need is the most beautiful compact between humans.
https://brenebrown.com/blog/2018/06/07/everyone-has-a-story/
I just read last night that her father died the day before her funeral. They are saying general bad health and her passing was too much for him.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kate-spade-apos-dad-dies-204455778.html
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kate-spade-apos-dad-dies-204455778.html
I agree. My first KS bag was an exciting experience! I had "moved on" from Coach and was seeking something different.. I got some Christmas money and wanted to purchase a Longchamp Le Pliage - something ubiquitous in college but was unattainable for me at that time. I went to Nordstrom and knew exactly which one I wanted. I was so excited. I also looked into the clearance bin, and lo and behold... a bright yellow nylon KS crossbody for only $40! I asked the SA if the price was correct, and she said yes. Couldn't believe my luck. That was a fun time. Then in 2016 I purchased a nice Wellesley Neda wallet on the KS site.. 25% off too! It has really held up well.
