Kate Spade

Kate Spade is an American fashion house founded in January 1993 by Kate Spade (born Katherine Noel Brosnahan), Andy Spade, Elyce Arons and Pamela Bell [2]. The company built its name on colourful, practical handbags and later expanded into clothing, shoes, jewelry, home decor and a licensed fragrance line. On its own website the brand describes itself simply as "a global lifestyle brand," without naming a home country; Wikipedia and a CBS News history both record it as American, founded in New York and headquartered in New York City [2][4].

The label is active and trades as a house brand of Tapestry, Inc., the New York group that also owns Coach. Its fragrances are the part of the business most relevant to beauty retail.

Before starting the company, Katherine Brosnahan worked as an accessories editor at the magazine Mademoiselle. According to the brand, she was frustrated that she could not find the practical yet fashionable handbag she wanted, so she made early samples out of construction paper in her apartment. Six versions of a bag called Sam debuted in 1993, which the company credits with "sparking an accessories revolution." A CBS News feature adds a detail of its own: on impulse, the night before an accessories show, Brosnahan moved the small logo from inside the bags to the outside, creating the exterior label that became a recognisable signature.

The aesthetic set the brand apart from its surroundings. CBS News describes designs built on bright prints, bold patterns, bows and polka dots, in deliberate contrast to the minimalist black look then associated with Prada. Vogue editor Anna Wintour praised the bags as "just like her; colorful and unpretentious," crediting Brosnahan with understanding what women actually wanted to carry [4].

The first standalone shop opened in SoHo, New York, in 1996. Beauty entered the picture in 2003, when the first Kate Spade fragrance launched. Twirl followed in 2010, and Live Colorfully arrived in 2013, timed to the brand's twentieth anniversary [2]. By the early 2000s the label had grown into a broad retail presence, eventually spanning more than 140 stores in the United States and roughly 175 internationally [4].

Kate Spade has changed hands several times. In 1999 the Neiman Marcus Group bought a 56% stake for about $34 million, and in 2006 Liz Claiborne Inc. acquired the company for $124 million [2]. In July 2017 it was bought by Tapestry, Inc. — the company formerly known as Coach, Inc. — for $2.4 billion, placing it alongside Coach within the same group. The brand has remained a Tapestry house brand since.

The company sums up its outlook in the phrase "joy colors life," and says it values "thoughtful details" across its product range. Kate Spade positions its work around joy, femininity and a playful, colourful sensibility; CEO Anna Bakst has called fragrance "an aspirational category and the perfect way for our customers to discover the joy and femininity our brand is known for" [3]. The designs have historically appealed to younger and career women drawn to that unpretentious, optimistic style [4].

The Sam handbag remains the founding product. In fragrance, the brand has released close to twenty scents since 2003, with Live Colorfully, Twirl and the original Kate Spade among the named launches [2]. The perfumes sit in the prestige tier and have been produced under a series of licensing partners rather than in-house.

The current licensee is Interparfums, which signed an eleven-year global fragrance licence in 2019, effective from autumn 2020 [3]. That deal succeeded a chain of earlier partners: the first fragrance in 2003 was made with The Estée Lauder Companies, Twirl and Live Colorfully came during an Elizabeth Arden licence, and Coty held the rights immediately before Interparfums [2][3].

Kate Spade is an active brand owned by the publicly listed Tapestry, Inc. Its fragrance business operates under the Interparfums licence effective from autumn 2020 [3]. Founder Kate Spade died in June 2018; the brand has continued under Tapestry's ownership, which at the time announced a $1 million donation toward mental health awareness [2].