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Kate Spade
While growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, Katherine Noel Brosnahan, now Kate Spade, was both the epitome and antithesis of the all-American girl. There was always something charmingly familiar yet wonderfully original about Kate. Her fresh sense of style and singular personality reflect a keen sense of wit, propriety, and a no-nonsense approach to life. Kate has spent most of her professional career in the accessories business. After college in 1986, she took a job at Mademoiselle Magazine, leaving in 1991 with the title of senior fashion editor/head of accessories. While working at the magazine, Kate realized that the market lacked stylish, practical handbags and so innocently began designing her own. She put together some sketches, investigated production costs, and created a line of classically shaped bags in satin finished nylon, as well as interesting colors and fabrics. With her fingers crossed, Kate, along with her partner and husband, Andy spade, launched "kate spade handbags" in January of 1993. As an accessories editor for six years, Kate knew the market well, while Andy, a creative director at tbwa/chiat/day advertising, immediately put his finger on the sensibility. Together, the couple identified a void in the market, combined their talents, took a risk, and designed six simple shapes that emphasized utility, color, and fabric. These six original designs continue to be the company's signature styles. As Kate Spade grows and evolves, a great deal of product development continues to occur within the company. Based on Kate's love of textiles, pattern, and strong geometric shapes, the company developed a signature, iconic design element. Inspired by the op art movement of the sixties, this element has proved multi-faceted and naturally developed into a new company mark and graphic art pattern. Various interpretations of the design were incorporated into the handbag, luggage, shoe, glasses, and paper collections and introduced as the "noel weave" collection in the fall of 2001. The company plans to incorporate this signature mark into its identity system and product collections going forward as a complement to the enduring "kate spade new york" logo.
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