Kate’s home truths

Sarah-Kate mourns the loss of a New York treasure

Oh, how my heart ached at news of designer Kate Spade’s sudden passing away last week. I didn’t know her, of course, but she meant a lot to me because I have been a fan for a very long time.

I walked past her first store on one of my earliest visits to New York City and stopped in shock – the window display simply screamed my name. A little Audrey Hepburn, a little modern glam, a little oh-my-God-I-have-to-have-that! In those days, she concentrated on handbags, which directly fed into my lifelong search for the perfect one. I’m not a big spender and her prices back then at the beginning of the century were almost reasonable.

After much deliberation, I chose something – a soft black doctor’s-style bag with a zip and spotty lining. Kate Spade just knew that a girl will sometimes go a long way (into overdraft) for the right spotty lining.

I wore that bag out and by the time I got back to NYC again, the designer had expanded into clothes. Gorgeous clothes. Clothes to make a woman feel just the right amount of feminine and chic without being too girly. Clothes to make you want to ride on a Vespa through Rome, sit in a dimly lit bar in Paris, skip through the sunflowers in Provence or just lift your mood on a dull day at home.

That year, I bought a little black dress. Sleeveless, with just the right amount of stretch, it had a large flat bow across the puku and flattering pockets. I loved it so much, I stalked the Kate Spade website and bought a black tulle petticoat – on sale – to go underneath it. The next year, she did the dress with the bow again in different colours and I bought two more at the end of the season at knock-down prices.

I have a small green shoulder bag that is perfect for travelling. Two shift dresses bought for me in a Boxing Day price slashing by a friend who lives in New York. There’s a cardigan I just found the other day – black with white flowers sewn onto it.

My sister, knowing what a collector I am, got me bracelets for my birthday one year. I have more Kate Spade in my wardrobe than anything else.

And even though – due to the passage of time and, to be honest, cronuts – I don’t even fit all of those dresses any more, I just like looking at them. They make me feel happy (not about the cronuts), but about what a wonderful thing it is when you think someone, somewhere, who doesn’t even know you, gets you.

The day she died, I got 10 messages from people who knew how I would feel, which is despairing that someone who has given me so much joy did not have enough herself to keep on going. I hope wherever she is, she’s at peace.

And I don’t care how fat or old or unlikely to ride a Vespa through Rome I get, my Kate Spade collection is staying exactly where it is.