Seven years later, Elyce Arons still misses Kate Spade.
The two colleagues met at the University of Kansas University and remained spirits for almost 40 years. Together they helped launch Kate Spade New York in the 1990’s and had recently started a new accessory brand, Frances Valentine, when Spade took their own lives in 2018, at the age of 55.
“I think of her every day,” Arons told The Post. “I still let myself feel talking to her.”
Spade’s death seven years ago shocked the fashion industry. Her cheerful and colorful designs made people smile and seemed to have a perfect life for images, with a creative and solidarity husband and daughter who worshiped her.
In his new book, “We could do it after all” (Gallery Books, June 17), Arons writes that Spade had suffered depression during the months before his death. The two talked about it and even discussed the celebrities in the past and [Katy] He had finally said for me, “I would never, I would never.” “”
Arons also writes that Spade “worshiped her daughter” and that she and her husband Andy Spade were “working their marriage problems and lived separately” but “they loved to the ends of the earth.”
“She was deprived of many things, even with me,” he writes. “A highly sensitive person, he felt things deeper than most … We all have dark times and periods. At one of those moments he lost hope.”
The lovely and effervescent memory of Arons represents the beloved fashion designer as a fierce and hard -working friend, the intense charisma baffled an incredible shyness.
He laughed when his tulle dress burned down during the wedding reception (guests turned the drinks to extinguish the flames), lost their tooth cap when they climbed a tree before a great meeting with Ese Lauder’s company and played their friends.
She, in short, was a delight.
“I feel like so many people remember how he left us and I want them to remember how he lived,” said Arons. “He was a talented person, of course, but such a amazing friend.
“He was loyal. He had great values. He was authentic. And I know many people thought of her as a girl next door … but she was the smart girl next door.”
Arons and Katy Brosnahan, later known as Kate Spade after launching his homonymous brand and then married Andy Space, first met in 1981.
It was the first year at the University of Kansas. The Arons came from their parents’ cattle farm in Sedgwick, Kan. Spade, who had gone to a private Catholic school by all Kansas City girls, wore khaki shorts, a shirt with a weejun’s pass.
“I looked at her and thought,” Oh my God is boring, “said Arons.
But after they discovered that they were both students of financial help who were studying journalism (due to a mutual obsession with Mary Tyler Moore), they were linked. One night, while smoking Virginia sinking outside a party, they spread their family secrets to each other. Arons cried as he remembered losing his older sister for bone cancer at the age of 9, and Spade explained the pain of his parents’ divorce when he was the same age.
“To share this tragedy, finally, with someone who understood it was a great problem,” said Arons.
“It was the time when I learned that I had a friend for life.”
The two participated, bought vintage and studied together. When Spade decided to move to the State University of Arizona, near where his older sister lived, they followed them.
“We talked about things so easily,” said Arons. “It was as if we were stuck to the hip.”
Later, in New York City, Arons worked at Fashion Pr, while Spade was a fashion and accessories publisher in Mademoiselle. Spade noticed the lack of good bag options for the outbreaks he designed.
So he decided to create his own.
“The coach existed, but he felt like a former traditional leather bags and was not aspirational,” said Arons. “Katy saw this gap in the market [for a] The functional bag that a woman could use and that actually accessed her dress and made her feel fantastic. This was the shine. “”
Arons, Spade, Andy and another friend, Pamela Bell, launched Kate Spade New York in 1990. SPADE spent their days creating prototypes out of cardboard on the floor and from Soho Loft in Andy, while others worked nights and weekends to hatch their business plans.
Two days before debuting his bags at the Manhattan Grand Accessories Fair, Spade decided that he wanted his discrete labels to sew on the outside of his vinyl and burlap bags instead of the interior. She, Arons and Bell spent three hours hitting these strips of fabric at their samples until their fingers bleed. But it worked. Barneys and Charivari made orders. Soon, Saks also began to carry them.
As the business expanded, its life also changed. Katy and Andy were married in 1994. In 1999, Neiman Marcus acquired 56 percent participation in the brand.
Despite Spade’s magnetism, she was very shy. The interviews and the speech in public were eager. However, as the brand grew, so did its fame. When Kate Spade launched a fragrance in 2002, Spade had to travel across the country to promote -often alone.
“It was very difficult for her,” said Arons. “Every day, a different city for herself. And it wasn’t just that she had to talk to people and find something smart, but she had to look good … It was a lot of pressure.”
His friendship had his ups and downs. “I had my worst fights with her,” said Arons. “But one of us always called back later and apologized.”
When the Arons had their first child, he named Katy and asked the sinks to be his godparents. They liked to play jokes on each other. Arons recalls once Katy got a giant rubber rat and put it in the kitchen toilet to find arons. “That scared me the day!” Arons recalled with a laugh.
In 2006, The Spades, Arons and Bell sold the company to Liz Clairborne. However, the arons and the shovel were still constantly talking about work and fashion. They came up with the idea of Frances Valentine after Arons found a couple of orange patent skin bombs he wanted, but he set off for $ 1200 rate.
“I thought,” We can do it for $ 398 and it would be of high quality, “said Arons. The two launched Frances Valentine (named after Spade’s daughter) in 2016 as a shoe and bag line.
“We were both doing everything,” said Arons. “It was an explosion. It only seemed good to have social life again in the office … and we raised almost, and that was when we lost Katy.”
Following the death of her friend, Frances Valentine launched a special limited collection of two vintage pieces from Katy’s wardrobe: a light -blue traditional Caftà that was on the holidays and a sweet candy jersey decorated with bright embroidery flowers. “We called our Love Katy collection and our customers became crazy,” said Arons. “They were exhausted immediately, so we did them again, and they exhausted again and again.”
Now Frances Valentine has a complete collection of clothing, which constitutes 60% of the brand’s business. Almost all the pieces are based on articles that Spade and Arons gathered their adventures and treasures.
It’s a way for her to be connected to her best friend.
“I think of her all the time, especially when I am steamed that no one realizes that he needs to make steam,” said Arons.
“Our friendship was so special,” he added. “Maybe people get it once in their lifetime.”
If you have trouble with suicide thoughts or you have a mental health crisis in New York City, you can call 1-888-nyc-well for free and confidential crisis advice. If you live outside the five districts, you can mark the National Suicide Prevention Line 24/7 at 988 or go to SuicidePventionLifeline.org.
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Image Source : nypost.com