The Story of Kate Spade: Learning from a Design and Business Icon
“All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece” (Pope St. John Paul II).
There are so many biographies and memoirs about businessmen and companies founded by men. I’ve long thought we didn’t have enough books about woman-founded companies and female entrepreneurs.
That’s why I was excited to see a new book this summer about the founding of one of my own favorite brands, Kate Spade New York. We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship With Kate Spade is written by Elyce Arons, Kate “Katy” Spade’s best friend and one of her co-founders.
(A note: As do most brands, Kate Spade New York’s parent company, Tapestry, currently supports causes, such as abortion, that are very much not aligned with Catholic teaching and which I am vehemently against. The state of women’s fashion is why I try to buy from Catholic-owned stores as much as I can, while knowing it’s not always possible for me or for other women to do so.)
Arons and Spade met in college and were best friends until Spade tragically committed suicide in 2018. Together with Spade’s husband, Andy Spade, and their friend Pamela Bell, they founded Kate Spade New York in 1993. They sold the company in 2006, and Arons and Spade founded Frances Valentine, another accessories and apparel company, in 2016.
First, the Story of a Friendship
First and foremost, We Might Just Make It After All is the story of a friendship. Arons describes how she and Spade met in college and bonded almost immediately over their shared love of Mary Tyler Moore (the title of the book is a reference to the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show). Both women studied journalism in college and dreamt of living in New York and working in broadcast journalism like Mary Richards, the star of the sitcom they’d both grown up watching.
Spade did go into journalism—but she worked for fashion magazine Mademoiselle. And Arons began her career in public relations for Girbaud, a French denim brand. When Arons moved to Greensboro, NC, leaving Spade behind in New York City, the two friends still talked by phone constantly. When Spade told Arons she wanted to start a handbag company and invited her to join her, Arons said yes.
Arons paints a mostly rosy picture of both Spade and their friendship. However, she doesn’t shy away from the challenges both of running a business and of managing an almost 40-year-long best friendship. Toward the end of the book, she describes a fight the two had toward the end of their time at Kate Spade. It involved yelling and cursing—and ended in hugs and laughter. The two women stayed close through grueling publicity schedules and the ups and downs of selling a majority share in Kate Spade NY and then selling the entire company. They continued to be best friends even as they got married and had daughters. And their friendship meant they were confident starting a second business together, though they hadn’t been running it long when Spade died.
Second, the Story of a Company
It was a match made in Heaven. Spade brought the design sensibility, her husband (then-boyfriend) Andy brought branding genius, Arons brought experience in marketing and public relations, and Pamela Bell brought expertise in manufacturing and production.
Bell also brought a baby, born in the early days of the company, who inspired a new product (the “baby bag”) and was the first baby girl to spend time in the offices of Kate Spade New York; Spade and Arons would eventually bring theirs to work with them sometimes, too.
“From day one, Katy was a doting mom and occasionally would bring the baby to work,” Arons writes. “I brought my daughters to work sometimes, too, and all the women on staff loved it. Having Katy’s and my daughters at work was such a pleasure … [Our office was] a place that thrived in a culture of mutual support, kindness, diligence and fun.”
This was in the early 2000s—looking back, I’d say they were ahead of their time!
Arons goes into detail describing the history of Kate Spade New York; anyone interested in entrepreneurship, particularly in the fashion industry, will find inspiration here—along with insights into the process of selling a majority stake and eventually the entirety of a company.
Priorities Shift
I personally was also inspired by Arons’ time in between Kate Spade and Frances Valentine. None of the founders was present for the actual signing of the papers selling the company to Liz Claiborne. And they left the offices on their last days quietly, without fanfare:
Our priorities had already shifted. A few years back, I would have wanted to be present at such a monumental event [the closing] to acknowledge it and remember how it felt. But now, chairing a school event for my kids was far more important to me. Mentally, I’d moved on, which was easier to do than I would have thought. I felt that we were walking away clean, on good terms with everybody, and happy about how it played out.
One thing I’ve learned over the last few years of running Catholic Women in Business with my own friend, Elise Crawford Gallagher, and writing Holy Ambition with her is the importance of remembering that life is full of seasons. Particularly, perhaps, for mothers. While I’m not stepping back from Catholic Women in Business, I have recently stepped back from my role as editor-in-chief, bringing on a managing editor to oversee our editorial calendar and online articles. With the growth of my family and increased demands on my personal time, I want to focus my CWIB time on serving as co-president with Elise.
It’s not that I don’t still love editing, and it’s definitely not that I don’t read, take an interest, and provide input on our online publication. But I’ve learned that in this season of life, my time, energy, and interest are better spent more strategically and at a higher-view level. Like Arons, I don’t feel bad about that. I just feel excited.
It took Arons and Spade 10 years after the sale of Kate Spade New York to launch their next business venture. But those weren’t lost years. They were years with other priorities—very important ones!—including their families and their philanthropic work. But that season ended and a new one began as they were working moms and entrepreneurs together again. That partnership was, of course, tragically cut short by Spade’s death. Arons doesn’t go much into detail about Spade’s depression; she notes that Spade was private about it, even with her. And she is still unsure as to what was going through Spade’s mind at the end of her life.
What she is sure about is the legacy Spade left for the countless women she knew both personally and through her brand (which Arons makes clear always cared very much about the woman it served). And at the end of her book, she leaves the reader with a very important message: “Go to your sister or your best girlfriend who’s just like a sister to you. Go to her today and hug her so hard that it’s like you won’t ever let her go.”
Taryn DeLong, co-president of Catholic Women in Business, co-wrote Holy Ambition: Thriving as a Catholic Woman at Work and at Home (Ave Maria Press) to help women hear and follow God’s unique calling for their life. Following her own calling, she currently spends much of her time caring for her two daughters, including homeschooling her preschooler. Since Taryn was a child, she’s called the Raleigh area home, and she and her husband are now raising their family in a small Raleigh suburb. In addition to supporting Catholic women, she's passionate about inclusion of people with disabilities in life, work, and (most importantly) the Church. She also enjoys reading and playing the piano. Connect with Taryn on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, her blog, or Substack.
