Frances Valentine Women's Fashion Brand

The fashion designer Kate Spade left her namesake company in 2007. She started a fresh vision and has set out on a new adventure - and her new fashion brand is called Frances Valentine. Frances Valentine is designed in New York City by Kate and husband Andy Spade. This is a footwear and handbags brand built by a designer starting again under a new name, and its story is told through the making, not the marketing.

One note belongs up front: this page links readers onward to the Kate Spade women's fashion brand, described there as no longer owned by Kate Spade. Two names, two different ownership stories. Frances Valentine is the later, independent venture - Kate and Andy Spade's own design work in New York - and confusing it with the namesake company she left in 2007 mistakes the whole point of the brand, which is precisely that it is the fresh start after that company.

Two Full Days in Every Pair of Shoes

The first prototype of each shoe design is made on a hand carved wooden last. Every pair of shoes takes two full days to complete. Those two facts describe a slow, bench-made approach to footwear: a last carved by hand sets the shape of every size that follows it, and a two-day making time means construction steps that factory lines compress - shaping, lasting, finishing - are given their full hours. A shopper cannot watch the pair being made, but she can read the result: shoes built this way should show it in clean lines, balanced proportions and finishing that holds up to a close look.

The handbags are made to the same discipline: handbags are custom-made with specially developed hardware, leathers, and fabrics to Kate's exacting specifications. Specially developed hardware is the detail to test in the hand - clasps, handles and fittings designed for this bag rather than bought from a catalogue - along with leathers chosen for the specific piece and fabrics developed for the collection. Exacting specifications only count where a customer can verify them, and on a bag that means hardware action, edge finishing and lining work, checked one by one.

Buying Slow-Made Shoes and Bags Well

Shoes that take two days to complete deserve a fitting that takes its time too. Judge the last's shape against your own foot - a hand carved last gives a deliberate fit character, so walk, turn and stand in both shoes, on hard flooring if you can, and buy the pair that fits at the end of the day. Structured, crafted footwear often eases with wearing, but it should never need to be broken in through pain; slow making aims at a shape that is right from the first wear, fitted correctly.

For the handbags, carry the tests the specifications invite: work every clasp and zip, load the bag with your real daily weight and carry it by handle and shoulder, and inspect the specially developed hardware for positive, smooth action. Care protects craft - store shoes with trees or tissue, bags stuffed and dust-bagged, and repair early while small problems are still small. Designed in New York City by Kate and Andy Spade, from a designer who left her namesake company in 2007 to start a fresh vision: Frances Valentine, on this record, is the adventure itself - shoes from a hand carved last, two days a pair, and bags built to an exacting specification.

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