Kate Spade History

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The Company Description of Its Time

It all started in 1993, historical descriptions say, when Kate Brosnahan Spade, a former accessories editor at Mademoiselle, set out to design the perfect handbag. Debuting with just six silhouettes, she combined sleek, utilitarian shapes and colourful palettes in an entirely new way - and Kate Spade New York was born. Women and fashion editors fell for the fresh, modern sensibility, and the first Kate Spade shop in New York City opened in 1996. Six shapes is a remarkably small beginning for a global lifestyle brand, and the profile keeps the formula visible in that debut: utility in the shape, colour in the palette, and a point of view that joined the two.

From Handbags to a Global Lifestyle Brand

In 2007, the historical record records, Spade turned the reins over to Kate Spade & Company - formerly known as Liz Claiborne, Inc. Shortly afterwards Deborah Lloyd took the helm as president and chief creative officer, aiming to broaden the line while honouring its history; along with CEO Craig Leavitt, she quickly launched clothing and jewelry collections, followed by bedding, legwear and fragrance. The range in the filing's fullest list runs from handbags and clothing to jewelry, fashion accessories, fragrance, eyewear, shoes, swimwear, home decor, desk accessories, stationery, tabletop and gifts - the handbag's graphic language applied to the whole of daily life.

The historical reference kept in the historical record is its 2015 summary. Kate Spade & Company (NYSE: KATE) designed and marketed accessories and apparel principally under two global, multichannel lifestyle brands: kate spade new york and Jack Spade, with collections spanning demographics, genders and geographies. The company also owned the Adelington Design Group, a private brand jewelry design and development group serving JCPenney through exclusive supplier agreements for the Liz Claiborne and Monet jewelry lines, and held a license for the Liz Claiborne New York brand at QVC and Lizwear through the club store channel. Kate Spade New York had over 140 retail shops and outlet stores across the United States and more than 175 shops internationally, with products sold in more than 450 doors worldwide.

Coach, the $2.4 Billion Acquisition, and Tapestry

The profile's final chapter is a change of ownership, recorded in two dated steps. In May 2017, Coach Inc. agreed to acquire rival Kate Spade & Co. for $2.4 billion, as the handbag and accessories maker sought to tap younger consumers amid slower growth in the handbag market. Then, in October 2017, the company announced that it was planning to rename itself Tapestry, effective October 31, 2017, with its ticker symbol changing from COH to TPR. The corporate name was changed mainly to reflect the company's expanding portfolio: Coach also owned boot maker Stuart Weitzman, bought in 2015, and fellow handbag maker Kate Spade, acquired in 2017. Tapestry is the new company name that owns the Kate Spade brand, and the route to the Tapestry filing in this directory is carried on this page.

Use this page for the facts the historical record files: the 1993 six-silhouette debut and 1996 first shop, the hallmarks of crisp colour, graphic prints and playful sophistication, the 2007 handover and the Deborah Lloyd broadening into clothing, jewelry, bedding, legwear and fragrance, the 2015 summary with its shop and door counts, and the 2017 Coach acquisition and Tapestry renaming. For current collections, the official Kate Spade website in the References is the authority; the women's Kate Spade brand page in the Clothes Guide brands section is also linked from this page as linked in the historical record.

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