My sophomore year in high school, Sue moved from the Midwest to our small town in upstate New York. We were inseparable. After college, I tried to keep in touch with her, but she moved to Hawaii, making it clear that she wanted to leave her adopted hometown far behind. Before a reunion I tried to contact her. Typing in her name on Google, I found her obituary. I spoke with her employer and was told she died by suicide. When I found her older brother, a doctor living in Arizona, he denied that, saying Sue had been cleaning the windows in her high rise apartment and fell to her death. But then he said to me, “Why didn’t you hold onto her?”
I was with my family in Hawaii celebrating a milestone birthday when I learned that Kate Spade had died by suicide. Because of where we were, I was already thinking about Sue and what her brother had said to me. I wondered about Kate’s friends. How were they feeling about her death? Elyce Arons, Kate’s best friend, offers insight in her new book, We Might Just Make It After All – My Best Friendship with Kate Spade. At an event on June 17 at the Barnes & Noble on the West Side, Elyce answered questions from Blair Eadie, founder of the personal style blog Atlantic-Pacific.
Those who showed up for the book signing and talk paid tribute to Kate, carrying vintage purses embossed with her name, and wearing bright colored dresses from Frances Valentine, the second company she and Elyce launched. All age groups were represented, reflected in the observations and questions that followed the interview.
Older women shared that, like Kate and Elyce, they were fans of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, where the title character, Mary Richard, worked as an associate producer of a news show at the fictional local station WJM in Minneapolis. The book’s title pays homage to the show’s opening song. “When I was growing up, women didn’t have careers,” Elyce said. “We majored in journalism because [Mary] was a journalist.”
Younger women spoke about how Kate and her story still inspires them. One said that she is majoring in journalism at the University of Kansas, just like Kate and Elyce. Others asked Elyce for guidance on starting a business.
Elyce met Kate, known as Katy, when they were freshman. After graduation, Kate wanted to move to New York, so Elyce followed. Even though they were just scrapping by, Elyce said those were the best times. “Katy was incredibly shy, but also one of the funniest people I ever knew,” she said. The two were constantly playing practical jokes on each other.
Both women were working on the fringes of the fashion industry when Kate observed that women’s handbags were boring. “It was a great thing to do with your best friend,” Elyce said about designing the bags. “It was a new experience. We didn’t know if the bag would be a hit or not.”
At that time, manufacturing was all done in New York. “We would go to factories and pick up the bags, steam them and pack them up,” she said. Kate’s motto: “If you’re never on trend, you’re never off trend,” summed up what happened. The bags were quickly snapped up by women, becoming a must-have accessory.
By 2006, most of the Kate Spade company had been sold off. Both women took time to spend with their families. In 2016, they launched Frances Valentine, which began with handbags and shoes, but expanded to clothing. Confessing that she loves sequins – she wore a sequin jacket to the event – Elyce described the Frances Valentine line as “joyful “with bright colors. “It’s a way of dressing that brings women compliments,” she said. After Kate died in 2018, the company made a caftan that she often wore as well as a sweater. The items quickly sold out.
Kate died seven years ago and Elyce said a long time passed before she could consider writing a book about her best friend. “I think about her every day and feel that she’s with me all the time,” she said. When she would share with friends anecdotes about Kate, they would often tell her she should write a book. “Once I got started, it became almost like therapy. The writing proved to be cathartic. I hope I told her story so people will know what a great person she was.”
Elyce hopes that people will take away something else after reading the book. “I hope they walk away cherishing their best friendships,” she said. “Relationships are special and don’t come by every day. Cherish them.”
We Might Just Make It After All – My Best Friendship with Kate Spade
Elyce Arons
Top photo of Blair Eadie (left) and Elyce Arons, by Woman Around Town
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