Fashion designer Kate Spade found dead in apparent suicide

NEW YORK — Law enforcement officials say New York fashion designer Kate Spade has been found dead in her apartment in an apparent suicide.

The officials say she was found hanging by housekeeping staff inside her Park Avenue apartment at about 10:20 a.m. Tuesday. They say she left a note at the scene.

We're working to learn more details of this developing story for Channel 2 Action News starting at 4 p.m.

The officials were not authorized to divulge details of an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The officials didn't know what the note said.

Spade, who was 55, created a line of sleek handbags in the early 1990s that created a splash.

Spade and her husband Andy started a new handbag company a few years ago, Frances Valentine. And she changed her name to Katherine Noel Frances Valentine Brosnahan Spade, she said in an NPR interview this year.

In addition to her husband, Spade is survived by a daughter, born in 2005.

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Her company, Kate Spade New York, has over 140 retail shops and outlet stores across the U.S. and more than 175 shops internationally.

In 2017, Coach spent $2.4 billion to buy the Kate Spade brand.

Noting that crucial demographic, Coach Inc. CEO Victor Luis said in a company release Monday that Kate Spade has a "strong awareness among consumers, especially millennials."

Spade was a former accessories editor at Mademoiselle before launching her brand in 1993.

Friends and fans took to social media to mourn the fashion maven.

“’I believed that I could, so I did,’” fashion designer Kenneth Cole wrote in a tweet remembering Spade. “She alone didn’t change the handbag would but she was an inspiring accessory. #KateSpade #RIP”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

Cox Media Group