So it was an abrupt jolt to reality today to learn that Kate Spade the woman had taken her own life. Indeed, she is like all women: her rivers ran deep. And perhaps we’re all a bit to blame for creating a world where Kate Spade the brand and Kate Spade the person seemed to meld into one. Who, after all is as simple as a hand bag they wear or the brand they’ve created? Perhaps the loss of the charming, beautiful and impossibly successful Kate Spade to her demons is a chance to wake us up to reality. Perhaps it’s part of a greater trend toward seeing not just one image of a person, but seeing the beauty of the whole person: the one who is not just as good as the things she owns or the way she dresses or her perfectly pleasant exterior; but who is also beloved for the beauty of her honesty, her authenticity and her bravery.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that any one thing is to blame, but I do know that I feel sad. Sad for the pain Kate Spade must have been in. Sad for her child, who’s lost her mother in such a devastating way. Sad for the rest of us, who lost something and someone who, as we all are, is irreplaceable.