Kate Spade Dead at 55 Suicide by Hanging ... Coroner Removes Body
Fashion Designer Kate Spade Dead at 55, Suicide by Hanging, Coroner Removes Body
Exclusive Details
11:45 AM PT -- Our law enforcement sources confirm the note Kate left behind was addressed to her daughter ... telling the 13-year-old the suicide wasn't her fault.
Iconic fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead of an apparent suicide Tuesday morning in her NYC apartment ... TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement sources confirm a housekeeper found Kate's body at 10:20 AM ET in her Park Avenue home. We're told she hanged herself using a scarf tied to her bedroom door knob. She was pronounced dead on the scene. We're also told she left a note.
Kate got her start in the '80s working for women's magazine "Mademoiselle" in Manhattan, when she moved in with Andy Spade -- David Spade's brother. She and Andy met while attending Arizona State University and working at a clothing store.
Together, they launched Kate Spade Handbags in 1993, and it blossomed into a full-scale clothing and jewelry line. Kate and Andy got married in 1994.
Kate sold her company in 2007 and took some time off to raise her daughter -- but got back in the game in 2016 by launching a new fashion brand called Frances Valentine ... named after her daughter, who's now 13 years old.
Kate was 55.
RIP
(CNN) Kate Spade's suicide is the latest in a tragic and disturbing recurrence of high-profile fashion designers who have hanged themselves.
Since 2010, two other celebrity designers have killed themselves in a similar way: Alexander McQueen in 2010 and L'Wren Scott in 2014.
Alexander McQueen
2010
Alexander McQueen hanged himself in the wardrobe of his London apartment and left a suicide note in February 2010. Officials later ruled the cause of the 40-year-old fashion designer's death as asphyxia and hanging. Officials didn't disclose what the note said.
McQueen, who had dressed stars from Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman to Rihanna and Sandra Bullock, killed himself nine days after the death of his mother. He expressed his devastation at her death on his Twitter account days before he died.
McQueen, whose real name was Lee Alexander McQueen, was born the son of a taxi driver in London's East End. He trained in London's Savile Row at a company that made suits for Prince Charles, and earned a reputation for controversy that earned him the titles "enfant terrible" and "the hooligan of English fashion."
One anecdote that helped cement his bad-boy image was that he had once embroidered a suit for the Prince of Wales with a profanity sewn into the lining.
British Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman called him a "modern-day genius."
"His brilliant imagination knew no bounds," she said after his death.
L'Wren Scott
2014
L'Wren Scott was found dead in her New York apartment in March 2014, hanging from a door knob with a scarf around her neck . She was 49 when she died and officials ruled the death a suicide.
The lanky former model designed clothes worn by a number of celebrities, including Madonna. She had been singer Mick Jagger's companion for more than a decade, and created many of Jagger's looks for the Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary tour.
Scott was born Laura "Luann" Bambrough and raised in Utah. The statuesque beauty -- she was 6-foot-4 -- was first spotted by photographer Bruce Weber at a Calvin Klein hosiery shoot, according to Vogue.
After modeling for several years, she became a stylist and eventually designed costumes for films such as the 1996 remake of "Diabolique" and 2000's "Mercy." She also received a credit on 2007's "Ocean's Thirteen" as actress Ellen Barkin's consultant.
Kate Spade
2018
Kate Spade was found by her housekeeper on Tuesday , hanged by a scarf she had allegedly tied to a doorknob, according to a New York Police Department source. A suicide note was found, a second NYPD source said.
Kate Spade and her husband, Andy, began building their iconic fashion empire in the '90s. Spade was a former accessories editor at a fashion magazine. In an interview with NPR's Guy Raz last year, she described how the couple built their brand:
"It's funny. You know, Andy and I were talking one night. And I just said — I was looking ahead and I saw the fashion directors. That would be your next jump from being senior fashion editor. And I thought, I don't really see myself wanting that job. So Andy and I were out, honestly, at a Mexican restaurant. And he just said, what about handbags? And I said, honey, you just don't start a handbag company. And he said, why not? How hard can it be?"
Spade started designing handbags in 1993 and opened her first store three years later.
"Debuting with just six silhouettes, she combined sleek, utilitarian shapes and colorful palettes in an entirely new way," the website says. The parent company of the handbag giant Coach spent nearly $3 billion to buy the Kate Spade clothing and handbag label and the Stuart Weitzman shoe brand. But sales have been dropping this year: Same-store sales for Kate Spade plunged 9% in the first quarter because of a huge drop in online revenue.
The suicide rate in the United States has seen sharp increases in recent years. It's now the 10th leading cause of death in the country, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Studies have shown that the risk of suicide declines sharply when people call the national suicide hotline: 1-800-273-TALK
The is also a crisis text line
The lines are staffed by a mix of paid professionals and unpaid volunteers trained in crisis and suicide intervention. The confidential environment, the 24-hour accessibility, a caller's ability to hang up at any time and the person-centered care have helped its success, advocates say.
New York (CNN) Kate Brosnahan Spade, the fashion designer and businesswoman, hanged herself in an apparent suicide Tuesday at a New York City apartment, according to a New York Police Department source.
Police responded at 10:10 a.m. after Spade was found by her housekeeper, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. A suicide note was found at the scene, he added.
Spade, 55, started Kate Spade New York in 1993 and opened her first shop in the city three years later, the company's website states
Fashion designer Kate Spade being interviewed in her New York showroom.
"Debuting with just six silhouettes, she combined sleek, utilitarian shapes and colorful palettes in an entirely new way," the site says.
Best known for its colorful handbags, Kate Spade New York has more than 140 retail shops and outlet stores across the United States and more than 175 stores internationally, the site states.
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 female American contemporary 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 consumers.
She embodied her own aesthetic, with her proto-1960s bouffant, nerd glasses and playful grin. Beneath that image was a business mind that saw the opportunities in becoming 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 a police official did not comment on what it said.
