N.Y. fashion designer found dead in suicide
NEW YORK — Iconic designer Kate Spade hanged herself with a scarf in the bedroom of her New York City home — and left a note telling her daughter it wasn’t her fault, sources said.
A housekeeper found the body of the 55-year-old fashion designer inside her Upper East Side apartment about 10:10 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
Andy Spade, her husband, was home at the time. But the couple’s 13-year-old daughter was at school, sources said.
Kate Spade was upset over “problems at home,” said a source. The source did not elaborate.
Spade was a 30-year-old former magazine editor in 1993 when she launched a line of sleek handbags that grew into a $2.4 billion global giant.
“We are all devastated by today’s tragedy,” her family said in a statement. “We loved Kate dearly and will miss her terribly. We would ask that our privacy be respected as we grieve during this very difficult time.”
Spade’s shocking death left some of her devoted customers sobbing in the streets.
“Every girl in the world knows of Kate Spade,” said Atlanta tourist Carter Boughner, 42, tears rolling down her face after she learned the news while walking by Spade’s apartment on Park Avenue. “Why would (she) do that?” Spade’s official cause of death was pending the outcome of an autopsy. But police officials said the totality of the evidence left little doubt that Spade took her own life.
“There was a note left and the contents of the note, physical state of the apartment and statement of the witnesses lead us to believe it was an apparent suicide,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.
Born Katherine Brosnahan in Kansas City, Mo., in December 1962, Spade attended an all-girls Catholic high school. She graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in journalism in 1985.
Eight years later, after a stint as an accessories editor at Mademoiselle magazine, she launched Kate Spade. Her partner on the new line of handbags was her soon-to-be husband, Andy Spade, the brother of comedian David Spade.