'Feisty, Creative Tour De Force' Fashion Designer Kate Spade Dead At 55
NEW YORK (AP) — Law enforcement officials confirm that fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead in New York in an apparent suicide.
Spade was 55.
"She was a creative tour de force, a feisty female designer. Her aesthetic was simple, elegant and chic based on 1950s fashion," said former assistant manager for Kate Spade in Dallas, Nell Langford. "She reminded us to live large - laugh, eat, travel and look fabulous and feel fabulous."
Spade's inspiration was whimsical and ultra feminine. She envisioned her customer doing dishes, but looking sexy doing it, wearing heels and dressed to the nines.
Her Nylon handbags created a huge sensation in the fashion industry in the 1990s, and her company, Kate Spade New York, had more than 140 retails shops across the country and 175 internationally.
Just last year, Coach bought the Kate Spade company in a $2.4 billion deal.
Many in the public eye took to Twitter in memory of the designer.
