Kate Spade, Whose Handbags Carried Women Into Adulthood, Is Dead at 55   The New York Times
Channel: popular videos
Date: 2018-06-05

The designer Kate Spade, who created an accessories empire and whose handbags became a status symbol and a token of sophisticated adulthood for American women, was found dead on Tuesday.

One of the first of a powerful wave of American female designers in the 1990s, Ms. Spade built a brand on the appeal of clothes and accessories that made women smile. Her cheerful lack of restraint and bright prints struck a chord with her consumers, many of them cosmopolitan women in the early stages of their careers.

She embodied her own aesthetic, with her proto-1960s bouffant, nerd glasses and playful grin. Beneath that image was a business mind that understood the opportunities in building a lifestyle brand, almost before the term officially existed.

The police said Tuesday that Ms. Spade, 55, was discovered unresponsive at a Park Avenue apartment, where she had hanged herself in her bedroom. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:26 a.m. She left a note, but the police chief of detectives, Dermot F. Shea, declined to comment on what it said.
“It appears at this point in time to be a tragic case of apparent suicide,” he said. “It is early in the investigation.”

A housekeeper found Ms. Spade, the police said. She was unconscious, and the housekeeper called 911.