The name “Kate Spade” refers to both the iconic fashion brand and its founder, but there was far more to the story than a single woman.
Elyce Arons is also at the heart of Kate Spade’s history, where she recalls her late friend and tells her side in a new memoir. “After all, we might make it: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade” comes from Simon & Schuster.
Aron and Spade met as freshmen at Kansas University and later transferred together to Arizona State University, where Spade met her husband Andy Spade (brother of comedian David Spade). The trio combined iconic affordable luxury handbag companies together.
Arons and Spade were inseparable in much of their adult life until Spade’s death in 2018. Her memoirs reveal that Arons calls her Spade “a real show that the first person in my life feels truly loved.”
Kate Spade was “mortal” as a public figure
Aron’s memoirs document Kate Spade’s humble early days beginning with the “aha! moment” of spade after the magazine’s editor’s job failed to find the right handbag for fashion shoots. She and Andy lay the foundations for a new company and persuade Aron to return to New York City and join. Their fledgling company developed from Spade’s New York apartments and partnered with local textile manufacturers who they thought were “a bit crazy,” Aron wrote. When their operations were too big for a Spade apartment, they moved to the office and procure dozens of discarded desks they found on the sidewalk.
None of her early partners were eager to become the public face of the brand, but Task went to her as Spade, known in her personal life as Katie, had a name on the label.
“Katie never wanted to be a public face of anything. On the contrary, she was worried about fame. But by creating the aesthetics of the brand, she was a designer,” writes Aron. “In spite of her embarrassment, Katie had charisma, authenticity, appearance and the X-factor that made her the front and face of the brand. Her name was on the label. We were mostly happy with it.
Arons writes that Spade “had been patient and became an expert in being the face and voice of the company,” but she still suffered from public opinion. She was naturally “slightly introverted” and was uncomfortable with celebrities.
She also often had to travel as the face of the company and went on tours to represent her new accessory lines and products. Arons describes this as Spade’s “disastrous” experience. When they launched their first perfume, Spade toured alone and eventually confronted Aron on a phone call that she felt “abandoned” by her team.
“I know it’s not your fault that you’re not here, but I feel abandoned by you. You guys put me in this. You should do this tour with me,” Spade said.
Ellis Aron’s final conversation with Kate Spade: “Unthinkable”
A few years after selling their company, Arons and Spade started Frances Valentine, a shoe and wallet company, together. Their sales were strong and looked like Aron, like “Lightning might attack twice.”
Spade passed away a year later.
“I talked frequently about Katie and her battle with depression. She knew she had been actively seeking help with experts over the past few years, and we understood that it was to ease the time when Katie was carrying deep sadness that she seemed to not shaking,” Aron Leitt said. “Most of the time, she was herself and we worked and socialized together as usual.
Still, Aron says he didn’t know how deep Spade’s deep depression was. She writes that Spade’s death “leaved us many questions.” She was talking to Spade the day before about Spade’s summer trip plans, when Spade later said he had to answer a call from her father and would call Arons back. It was “unthinkable” for Aron to have it become their final conversation.
“Losing my best friend – the woman who shared my sense of humor, the woman who was my constant companion on school, at work, at dinner, at phone, at my house, on vacation, it was like losing her face in the mirror,” Aron wrote. “It was confusing, intrusive and very lonely.”
Kate Spade and her husband Andy lived apart, but “loved each other.”
Spade and her husband were separated at the time of her death, but “we needed a break” and “we never even discussed divorce,” Andy told people in a posthumous statement.
“After all, we might make it,” writes Aaron, the pair “loved each other all the way to the edge of the earth.” She also denounces those who wrote “superficial ready-made explanations” for Spade’s death, like marriage and company issues.
“A very sensitive person, she felt things deeper than most,” writes Aron. “But I’m sure she’s not that angry about the pair of shoes we’ve sold that we’ll take her own life. We all have dark moments and periods. In one of those moments, she lost hope.”
This article discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is struggling or in a crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
Clare Mulroy is USA Today’s Books Reporter, covering Buzzy releases, chatting with authors and diving into the culture of reading. Find her On Instagramsubscribe every week Book Newsletter Or tell her what you’re reading cmulroy@usatoday.com.
