--- title: The Personal Style Behind Kate Spade’s Designs description: Spade the person—like the bags, shoes and accessories she designed—deserves a special place in the legacy of fashion canonical: https://time.com/5304234/kate-spade-personal-style/ author: Fern Mallis article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-07T11:21:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:30:00.837Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Personal Style Behind Kate Spade’s Designs og:description: Spade deserves a special place in the legacy of fashion og:url: https://time.com/5304234/kate-spade-personal-style/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde2d4300efd8ee47/69893279bc6cfc3cf63e625f/kate-spade-personal-style.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1862 og:image:height: 1047 og:image:alt: Kate Spade 2005 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Personal Style Behind Kate Spade’s Designs twitter:description: Spade deserves a special place in the legacy of fashion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde2d4300efd8ee47/69893279bc6cfc3cf63e625f/kate-spade-personal-style.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Personal Style Behind Kate Spade's Designs > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=8e2ed0c7-ca83-472e-8840-4ce87a19c47b&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Fern Mallis](https://time.com/author/fern-mallis/) ## Fern Mallis Jun 7, 2018 11:21 AM UTC  American accessories designer Kate Spade in 2005 American accessories designer Kate Spade in 2005 Circe Hamilton—Camera Press/Redux by [Fern Mallis](https://time.com/author/fern-mallis/) ## Fern Mallis Jun 7, 2018 11:21 AM UTC There was a moment when everyone carried a Kate Spade bag. As a handbag designer starting in the 1990s, she had taken preppy shapes and images and twisted them into a contemporary must-have accessory that influenced a generation of women designers. Her energetic, colorful personality matched that aesthetic. She seemed to be the epitome of happy, carefree and upbeat, especially during the heyday of her career. It feels unbelievable that someone like Kate Spade, who was found dead on June 5 at age 55, would take her own life. She had not been “out there” so much as of late, but she had started a new collection, called Frances Valentine. She was a creative person, and after she spent about a decade raising her daughter, I’m guessing she felt it was time to be back in the game–the game she invented, with unique products that represented her own very personal style. Still, to many, Kate Spade had become a brand’s name and stopped being a person’s name. When that happens in our industry, I think that is very sad. Kate Spade the person–like the bags, shoes and accessories she designed–deserves a special place in the legacy of fashion. _Mallis is a former executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5304234/kate-spade-personal-style/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5304234/kate-spade-personal-style/"},"headline":"The Personal Style Behind Kate Spade's Designs","datePublished":"2018-06-07T11:21:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:30:00.837Z","description":"Spade the person—like the bags, shoes and accessories she designed—deserves a special place in the legacy of fashion","url":"https://time.com/5304234/kate-spade-personal-style/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde2d4300efd8ee47/69893279bc6cfc3cf63e625f/kate-spade-personal-style.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Fern Mallis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/fern-mallis/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde2d4300efd8ee47/69893279bc6cfc3cf63e625f/kate-spade-personal-style.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kate Spade 2005","caption":"Kate Spade","creditText":"Circe Hamilton—Camera Press/Redux","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5304234/kate-spade-personal-style/","name":"The Personal Style Behind Kate Spade's Designs"}}]}] ```