The Kate Spade Surprise Sale comes around every so often, but this time it’s back and bigger than ever. Right about now you may be coming up with your Cyber Weekend strategy, but thanks to Kate Spade’s early deals, you can easily (and affordably) get ahead of the Black Friday shopping rush with some seriously good finds. For a limited time, you can shop hundreds (yes, hundreds) of pieces up to 75% off.
From classic bags to party-ready dresses and versatile work pieces, there are so many gems on sale until December 2 (with free shipping on orders over $99!). To keep you from endlessly scrolling, we scoured the Kate Spade Surprise Sale for the very best pieces you need to shop right now. Whether you’re in the market for a glittering cross-body or a plush teddy coat, there’s something for you below. See what we’re scooping up before the sale ends, ahead.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
At this point, even the biggest advocates for #EndlessSummer have officially left the carefree season behind. Between spiced beverages, cozy nights in, and holiday festivities, autumn has a lot of perks—but fall fashion may be the best one of all. And thanks to the latest Kate Spade sale, it’s simple (and affordable) to update your seasonal wardrobe with a few very good finds.
From Meghan Markle-approved shift dresses to extremely versatile work pants, there’s a lot to take in. The entire sale section on the site has an extra 30% off through November 3 if you add the code TREATME at checkout.
To keep you from scrolling into oblivion, we scoured the sale for the very best pieces. Whether you’re in the market for a leopard-print midi skirt or a stylish cardigan, there’s something for you below—so get to shopping!
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
If you’re looking to add some pieces to your summer wardrobe (and maybe a couple for fall too) you’re probably too distracted with Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale to even give Amazon Prime Day a chance. We get it. But in recent years Amazon has added a lot of department store worthy brands to it’s roster. The only difference is Prime membership gives you free shipping and Prime Day gives you extra discounts. What we’re saying is, don’t sleep on this year’s Prime Day deals that’ll last for two full days—throughout June 16—for this first time ever.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on who you ask) Amazon basically carries every single product known to man and trying to find the best fashion pieces that you actually want to wear is no easy feat by any means. So we’ve gone ahead and done the dirty work by narrowing down the hundreds of Amazon Prime fashion deals to the thirteen that we’re actually pretty excited about.
One of the buzziest moments at New York Fashion Week last September wasn’t the launch of a new brand or celebrity-stacked front row. Rather, it was the arrival of a new era at Kate Spade New York. Nicola Glass presented her first collection as the brand’s creative director, following Deborah Lloyd’s beloved, decade-long tenure. Her Spring 2019 offering—with colorful, ’70s-inspired dresses and prints and plenty of statement-ready handbags—left the fashion crowd buzzing. Flash-forward to February, when the industry reconvened for yet another Fashion Week and and Glass’ designs became available to shop, Kate Spade New York was spotted all over the front rows and in street style.
There’s extra incentive to pick up a piece from the brand’s revival right now: Every single item from Kate Spade New York’s Spring 2019 collection is 30 percent off, as part of a site-wide sale through March 3. (Previous markdowns are also fair-game in this sale, FYI.) Given how the fashion crowd has responded to Glass’ designs, don’t be surprised if some of these sell out quick. (Another reason to shop? Two percent of net sales from this sale will be donated to Kate Spade New York’s non-profit partner, the Tides Foundation.) So, if there was ever a time to press “Check Out” on a pair of platform sandals or spade-lock bag, this is it.
Make the new Kate Spade New York yours with our picks from the brand’s Spring 2019 sale, below.
Andy Spade, the husband and partner to the late accessories designer Kate Spade, has broken his silence for the first time since his wife’s passing on Tuesday. In a statement provided to The New York Times, Andy called his wife “the most beautiful woman in the world.”
In his statement, Andy says, “Kate was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was the kindest person I’ve ever known and my best friend for 35 years. My daughter and I are devastated by her loss, and can’t even begin to fathom life without her. We are deeply heartbroken and miss her already.”
He then explained that his wife had suffered from “depression and anxiety for many years,” adding that she was actively seeking help and working closely with medical professionals.
“We were in touch with her the night before and she sounded happy. There was no indication and no warning that she would do this. It was a complete shock. And it clearly wasn’t her. There were personal demons she was battling,” he added.
Andy also stated that the couple had been living separately for the last 10 months. Their daughter, Frances, lived between the two homes, which were just a few blocks apart. According to Andy, he still spoke to his wife every day, ate meals alongside her and continued to vacation together as a family.
“We were not legally separated, and never even discussed divorce,” he said in the statement. “We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how. We were together for 35 years. We loved each other very much and simply needed a break.”
To clear up tabloid rumors about his wife’s death, Andy added that everything besides these facts is false.
“She was actively seeking help for depression and anxiety over the last 5 years, seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety. There was no substance or alcohol abuse. There were no business problems. We loved creating our businesses together,” he wrote. And, perhaps most distressing of all, he added “…yet to see any note left behind and am appalled that a private message to my daughter has been so heartlessly shared with the media.”
Andy closed the message by saying his main concern is now with his daughter. He signed off with, “Kate loved Bea so very much.”
Following the news of the designer’s alleged suicide, women across generations took to social media to share their memories of the designer and just how much owning a bag she so carefully designed meant to them.
Few designers achieved the level of everywhere-ness that Kate Spade did. Her signature nylon handbags were a nineties staple; her cheerful color palettes, her playful aesthetic, and her optimistic slogans made her brand beloved across the country and internationally. Her story—of teaching herself the business, of starting her own company, of leaving her own company, of starting a second company—has been retold, inspiring young entrepreneurs, women, and, of course, her shoppers. When news of her passing broke on June 5, it felt personal to many.
Kate Valentine Spade (née Brosnahan) was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from Arizona State University in 1985—there she met Andy Spade while working retail, and together they moved to New York after college. Kate got work through a temp agency before becoming a fashion assistant at Mademoiselle, which was published by Condé Nast. She rose up the ranks of the magazine, and, when she was promoted to associate editor, she was put in charge of accessories.
Spade left Mademoiselle in 1991. At that point she had been the publication’s senior fashion editor—and she had an idea to create a handbag line, despite having no formal design training. “I remember being really embarrassed that I wasn’t a student from Parsons or RISD or FIT, that I really didn’t know what I was doing,” she told NPR’s Guy Raz in 2017. “I honestly started with paper.” She’d “start by buying big sheets of white paper, and I would cut out and tape the shape that I wanted,” she recalled. “Then I’d look at it and I’d make it shorter, smaller…. I went to a pattern maker that I found in the back of Women’s Wear Daily…. She worked out of her apartment, and she was as patient as could be with me because I didn’t know anything.”
Two years later, in 1993, she and Andy officially founded Kate Spade the brand. (The name was a combination of the two’s names, at the time. They were married a year later, in 1994.) At the center of its inaugural collection was the “Sam” bag, a boxy handbag that would become one of its signatures. There were six styles total, ranging in price from $100 to $400—and, notably to many, featured the brand’s name, in lowercase, on the outside. It was carried at Barneys, Fred Segal, and Charivari. The company didn’t turn a profit for three years, though: “We were still not making any money. Nobody was making a salary. Andy was funding everything,” Spade told NPR. “I just remember thinking, I think we need to shut it down.”
The designer in her first store, in New York, in 1996
Nineteen ninety-six was a pivotal year for the brand. It’s when the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awarded Spade the New Fashion Talent in Accessories prize. (She would win another trophy from the organization in 1998, for Best Accessory Designer of the Year.) She also opened her first store, in New York’s downtown SoHo neighborhood. Andy quit his day job in advertising and joined the brand full-time. Plus, the company finally broke even.
Kate Spade the brand started gaining a following, thanks to its success at trade shows and in retail, features in magazines like Vogue, and celebrity endorsements. (Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow were reportedly early fans.) By 1998 it had stores in Boston, Los Angeles, and Tokyo.
Then, in 1999, Neiman Marcus Group bought a 56 percent stake of Kate Spade, at an estimated $33 million. The Spades remained involved with the company, though. And over the next few years, it would expand into new categories—bath and body (with Estée Lauder, in 2002), home (with Lenox, in 2003), and even airline uniforms (for the now defunct Song airlines, also in 2004).
PHOTO: David Howells
In 2002 Spade was named a Glamour Woman of the Year. “If you’re as honest and fair as you can be, not only in business but in life, things will work out,” she said her cover story interview. “I hope that people remember me not just as a good businesswoman but as a great friend—and a heck of a lot of fun.”
A few years later she told Vogue of her brand: “We’re not intimidating…. I think some people get nervous about fashion because they find it a little scary. But fashion should be enjoyed; it shouldn’t be looked at from a jaded, been-there-done-that point of view.”
PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
In 2006 Neiman Marcus Group sold Kate Spade to Liz Claiborne, Inc., for $124 million; the brand had been put on the market by the majority stakeholder for about a year before that, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Spades left the company a year later, in 2007, and haven’t been involved with it since. (Even though the brand still exists with the designer’s name, The Fashion Law posits that Spade likely signed an agreement that would prevent her from using her name for commercial purposes, as the trademark presumably belongs to its new owner.) That same year Deborah Lloyd was hired as Kate Spade’s new creative director. (Under Lloyd’s leadership, the brand would launch apparel, jewelry, children’s and other products, as well as a sister brand, Kate Spade Saturday.)
After walking away from Kate Spade the brand, Kate Spade the woman focused her efforts on philanthropy, through the Kate Spade & Company Foundation, and on raising her daughter, Frances Beatrix. Andy, meanwhile, started his own creative agency and founded the sleepwear brand Sleepy Jones.
PHOTO: Bloomberg
A Kate Spade New York storefront, in California
Liz Claiborne, Inc., would also undergo some changes in the following years: The company rebranded as Fifth & Pacific in 2012, then again to Kate Spade & Company in 2014. In 2017 Coach bought Kate Spade for a reported $2.4 billion; that fall it was incorporated into Tapestry, Inc.
In 2016 the Spades returned to fashion—more specifically, to the world of accessories—with a new venture, named after their daughter. Frances Valentine launched as a direct-to-consumer line, with select retail partners, like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. To mark this new chapter, Kate legally changed her name from Kate Spade to Kate Valentine, a family name. “We’re not trying to be cheeky or coy,” she told Business of Fashion. “It really was to distinguish the name, and separate the two worlds. Obviously we’re super proud of Kate Spade, and we want to be respective of both.”
PHOTO: Ben Gabbe
The Spades promoting Frances Valentine in 2017
Even a decade after she had cut ties with the label that bore her name, Kate Valentine Spade couldn’t be totally separated from Kate Spade New York. She herself recounted an instance to The Wall Street Journal when her then-11-year-old stopped her in front of a Kate Spade store in Manhattan and said, “Mommy, that’s you.”
For many women, “Kate Spade” didn’t mean a handbag or even a New York designer—rather, it represented something bigger: a milestone purchase, an achievement, a first investment in one’s self. Twelve women told Glamour about their first Kate Spade moment, and countless others did the same on social media, in light of the designer’s death.
PHOTO: Thomas Iannaccone/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock
Twenty-five years after she first entered the fashion industry, Kate Valentine Spade was still intertwined with that logo, that story, that message. After her untimely death, the legacy of her work, and the vivacious spirit it represented, will resonate even more deeply in fashion and beyond. “We honor all the beauty she brought into this world,” Kate Spade the brand said in a statement after her death. And, truly, we’re all better for it.
If you’re dealing with depression or suicidal thoughts, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
