Fashion designer Kate Spade - legendary for her popular handbag lines - was found dead in her NYC apartment today of an apparent suicide. Spade, 55, was found by a housekeeper. She was hanging from a red scarf on a bedroom door around 10:30 this morning. A note was found nearby but its contents have not been released.
Kate Spade, whose legal name was Katherine Noel Brosnahan, designed handbags first and then expanded to jewelry and clothing. She and her husband opened their first retail shop in New York City's SoHo district and things expanded dramatically from there. They sold part of the business to Neiman-Marcus in 1999 and the remainder to what is now Fifth & Pacific a few years later.
She is survived by her husband Andy Spade and their 13-year-old daughter, Frances Beatrix Spade.
CNBC's story on Kate Spade elaborates further here. You can also watch the video update below.