Kate Spade Kate Spade (née Katherine Noel Brosnahan) was an American fashion designer. She first gained recognition as an editor at Mademoiselle magazine from 1986 to 1992. Spade and her future husband, Andy Spade, launched their Kate Spade handbags line in 1993. They opened their first Kate Spade boutique in New York in 1996. The Spades sold their stake in the company to Neiman Marcus in 2006. Before Spade’s death in 2018, she and her husband launched the company Frances Valentine, named after their daughter, in February 2016.
