Kate Spade ( born Katherine Noel Brosnahan ) is an american fashion designer born in Kansas City,Missouri.
Kate is the youngest of 6 kids, having 4 sisters helped her develop her sense of style at a young age, trying to look different from her older sisters, and although she wasn't particularly interested in fashion in her early years she used to enjoy shopping in vintage shops.
Growing up in Kansas give her the opportunity to develop her own style and fashion sense since she wasn't exposed to the fashion world.
Kate majored in journalism from Arizona State University in 1985, and while attending college she got a job in a menswear shop where she met her husband Andy Spade.
After graduation Kate backed pack to Europe by herself, she returned to the US to visit a friend in New York and decided to search for a temporary job while she was there, she soon got a job at Mademoiselle magazine and what was supposed to be a temporary job turned out to be a steady one where she quickly advanced to senior fashion editor in charge of accessories.
While Kate was working in New York Andy decided he was going to move to New York with Kate and ended up finding a job really fast.
Soon Kate and Andy were sharing a tiny New York City apartment.
After a couple of years in the magazine Kate still wasn't making good money, she wanted to open a business and quit working for other people.Kate and Andy wanted to do business together.
Kate quit her current job and Andy kept working and providing for both of them till the new business did well.
Kate and Andy decided to sell handbags designed by Kate since she could never find a purse she liked, she will create that purse no one had and she had always seen in her head, they started their business in their apartment with their own money.
After contracting a manufacturer for the handbags Kate and Andy decided to create Kate Spade a combination of their names, they decided to take their 6 sample handbags designes to a trade show in the city and got to sell 5 hundred dollars in order from Barneys and Charivari giving the brand a new opening and putting them out there in the fashion map, they even got feature by Vogue few months later.
Two years after Kate and Andy got married, moved their headquarters to West Twenty-fifth Street, a new place outside their apartment and open their first store in 1995.
In 1997 Kate was honored as Accessories Designer of the Year, the business grew rapidly expanding their merchandise to clothes, jewelry, household items, eyewear, footwear.
Kate Spade has now become an unique brand with its own fashion sense becoming lifestyle brand of classiness and youthfulness.
Critical Analysis
Kate Spades designs are influenced by the 50's, and 60's, I think it has a lot to do with her passion for vintage clothing, when she used to go shopping at vintage shops with her mum and buy clothes from that time. The items from Kate Spade are always colorful and vibrant like in the 50`s and 60's where hippies, drugs and pop art were so big, these are times where color dominated everything, we see pictures of the hippies trucks full of different colors, yellow, green, pink; everything at that time reflected freedom and the idea to express yourself.
She keeps that motto, she expresses herself in the most classy and elegant way, keeping it vintage, colorful and fun.
And although Kate Spade doesn't reflect the current zeitgeist because she is still influenced by what happened on the 50`s and 60`s she still manages to give her designs certain timeless that make her designs youthful and unique, wearable and desirable for many people right now without any age range.
¨Creative Director Deborah Lloyd: I think we are still capturing that same spirit but I think there are certainly more Kate Spade New York girls out there now. I also think it’s not about an age. It is about a personality. We like to say that she’s quick and curious and playful and strong. I know “girls” of any age who fit that description— it’s who we attract, and also who we love.¨( Capitol File Magazines RSS)
Kate Spade has not been influenced by any designers, as hard as it is to believe she was never interested in fashion and being born in a city with no fashion influences she developed her own style and sense of fashion, she has always sticked to her designs not following trends, designing things she likes, that normally couldn't be able to find anywhere else and that she would buy.
Kate thinks that ¨ You can never out grow a purse ¨ and I think you can never out grow a Kate Spade. You know its a Kate Spade when you see it.
Influence
Kate Spade is an icon and will have a lasting influence in fashion because whenever you go to her store you are not going because its the place you go and know you will find that animal print purse everyone is rocking that season or to find the must-have of the month but because you go to find her. You go to Kate Spade to buy youthfulness, classiness and a design thats 50`s or 60`s inspired that you will be able to rock for years and will never go out of season, like the always present beige raincoat for spring or the little black dress. You know Kate Spade designs are timeless.
Kate Spade doesn't have many influence on designers, I feel its more of a lifestyle brand than a trend setter.
¨The concept of Kate Spade is fantastic, a great way of living, a great way of thinking, a great mind set. Its a lifestyle brand ¨ Actress, Camille Belle
She was able to create an empire without knowledge of design, starting in an apartment and with hers and Andy's own money, trying to create a business not a fashion empire.
She has grown so fast that its hard for me to imagine the fashion world without the always girly, classy, fun and youthful Kate Spade designs.
Her trueness to herself and her gift to make timeless designs will make her a legend.
Her versatility, the aesthetics of her colorful and elegant designs and her signature looks will make her even bigger in the near future and Im sure she is not far from becoming an icon in the fashion industry around the world because she's more than a designer, she is a personality.
One of the most significant 'trends' of Kate Spade will be the square purse the one she created for her first ever handbag design, and we still see in every new collection, but other than that I feel it goes further than a trend, its more about the unique style of everything, bright colors, fun, elegance, and modern style with old influences.
Its very Charlotte and Carrie from Sex and the City I feel.
¨People associate Kate Spade with New York City ¨ Stylist ,Brad Goreski.
We know Sex and the City was a huge show during the time Kate Spade was founded (1993) and I see a lot of resemblance between the outfits from the show and Kate Spade designs, I mostly think of Charlotte because she is very fashionable but still classy and sophisticated and always using colors like pink, white and black, colors always present in Kate Spade`s designs.
We all see trends like leggins, arm warmers, bell bottom jeans from the 90`s, phosphorescent colors in the 60`s, those trends come and go, many designers take those non lasting trends and put them in their collections, all those things go out of style quite soon, but Kate Spade doesn't hear trends,she doesn't care if phospho is the color of the season or if grunge is the new black, she will stick with her same style and change something on it to make it more modern but you will never find anything that doesn't scream Kate Spade classiness and long lasting fashion trend.
¨Creative Director Deborah Lloyd: I think we are still capturing that same spirit but I think there are certainly more Kate Spade New York girls out there now. I also think it’s not about an age. It is about a personality. We like to say that she’s quick and curious and playful and strong. I know “girls” of any age who fit that description— it’s who we attract, and also who we love.¨( Capitol File Magazines RSS)
Kate Spade has not been influenced by any designers, as hard as it is to believe she was never interested in fashion and being born in a city with no fashion influences she developed her own style and sense of fashion, she has always sticked to her designs not following trends, designing things she likes, that normally couldn't be able to find anywhere else and that she would buy.
Kate thinks that ¨ You can never out grow a purse ¨ and I think you can never out grow a Kate Spade. You know its a Kate Spade when you see it.
Influence
Kate Spade is an icon and will have a lasting influence in fashion because whenever you go to her store you are not going because its the place you go and know you will find that animal print purse everyone is rocking that season or to find the must-have of the month but because you go to find her. You go to Kate Spade to buy youthfulness, classiness and a design thats 50`s or 60`s inspired that you will be able to rock for years and will never go out of season, like the always present beige raincoat for spring or the little black dress. You know Kate Spade designs are timeless.
Kate Spade doesn't have many influence on designers, I feel its more of a lifestyle brand than a trend setter.
¨The concept of Kate Spade is fantastic, a great way of living, a great way of thinking, a great mind set. Its a lifestyle brand ¨ Actress, Camille Belle
She was able to create an empire without knowledge of design, starting in an apartment and with hers and Andy's own money, trying to create a business not a fashion empire.
She has grown so fast that its hard for me to imagine the fashion world without the always girly, classy, fun and youthful Kate Spade designs.
Her trueness to herself and her gift to make timeless designs will make her a legend.
Her versatility, the aesthetics of her colorful and elegant designs and her signature looks will make her even bigger in the near future and Im sure she is not far from becoming an icon in the fashion industry around the world because she's more than a designer, she is a personality.
One of the most significant 'trends' of Kate Spade will be the square purse the one she created for her first ever handbag design, and we still see in every new collection, but other than that I feel it goes further than a trend, its more about the unique style of everything, bright colors, fun, elegance, and modern style with old influences.
Its very Charlotte and Carrie from Sex and the City I feel.
¨People associate Kate Spade with New York City ¨ Stylist ,Brad Goreski.
We know Sex and the City was a huge show during the time Kate Spade was founded (1993) and I see a lot of resemblance between the outfits from the show and Kate Spade designs, I mostly think of Charlotte because she is very fashionable but still classy and sophisticated and always using colors like pink, white and black, colors always present in Kate Spade`s designs.
We all see trends like leggins, arm warmers, bell bottom jeans from the 90`s, phosphorescent colors in the 60`s, those trends come and go, many designers take those non lasting trends and put them in their collections, all those things go out of style quite soon, but Kate Spade doesn't hear trends,she doesn't care if phospho is the color of the season or if grunge is the new black, she will stick with her same style and change something on it to make it more modern but you will never find anything that doesn't scream Kate Spade classiness and long lasting fashion trend.
