Icon Designer Kate Spade Body Found, Suspected Suicide

Iconic designer Kate Spade was found dead Tuesday in a suspected suicide inside her Upper East Side home, cops said.

A housekeeper found the body of the 55-year-old fashion maven in her apartment on Park Avenue near E. 77th St. at about 10:20 a.m, police sources said. Spade hanged herself with a scarf, police sources said. A note was found inside the home, suggesting Spade committed suicide, sources said. 
Kate Spade New York has more than 140 retail shops around the U.S. and more than 175 elsewhere in the world. 

Born Katherine Brosnahan in Kansas City 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 a fashion 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. But her handbags, with their modern look and bright pops of color, soon attracted legions of loyal buyers. Kate Spade handbags lined the shelves at Barneys and other high-fashion retailers. 

Spade parlayed her fame into three successful books, “Manners,” “Occasions,” and “Style.”

She sold the company in 2007 to focus on the couple’s daughter Frances, who was born on Feb. 2005.

But she returned to the fashion world in 2016 when she launched the Frances Valentine line in U.S. stores.

By GRAHAM RAYMAN and RICH SCHAPIRO

NY Daily News.