(Image source from: KMVU Fox 26 Medford)

Kate Spade, 55, a noted designer for her unadorned, vivid handbags that became preferred appurtenant of professional women in 1990s, was found deceased at her residence in Manhattan on June 5.

Police officials confirmed that she committed suicide by hanging as a short letter was recovered at the incident but told the exact circumstances are not yet clear.

Working her way up from an entry-level to senior editor for accessories, Spade began her vocation at Mademoiselle magazine. She decided to outset an enterprise and be a designer as she was frequently downhearted at the selection and prices of handbags available for photo sessions.

She favored a plain woven bag with not zippers or flaps and the designer bags from Prada and Louis Vuitton were precious, in every way, to suit Spade.

"I said to myself, Where's a bag that I can afford, that's simple, that's not saying too much and that I won't be embarrassed to pull out every season?" she told the Toronto Star in 1997.

Without any grooming in designing, she went to work using construction paper and scotch tape to insight the accurate dimensions.

Her basic handbag was made of burlap, the inexpensive material she could locate. She took her designs to a manufacturer in Brooklyn and at an accessories display in 1993 she displayed her six models merchandising a few but not adequate to cover the outgo of the booth at the exhibition hall.

"I sat down with some tracing paper, and I knew immediately what the shape should be - a very simple square," she told Fortune Small Business in 2003. "At the time no one was doing anything that clean. The shape gave me a real flexible canvas for applying all the ideas I had for a lot of colors, patterns, and fabrics."

Then unmarried and still noted by her maiden name, Kate Brosnahan, she hunted for the right brand name trying out various before fetching advice of her beau, Andy Spad.

"Andy kept saying the whole time, 'Kate Spade, Kate Spade, listen to how it sounds,' " Ms. Spade told the New York Times in 1999. The Kate Spade company was formed one year before she and Andy Spade were married in 1994.

Spade began acknowledged as one of the world's best fashion designers of accessories as her handbags were selected up by Barneys and other department outlets. Her creations were featured by vogue and else magazines and influential persons such as Gwyneth Paltrow were spotted carrying her designed bags.

By late 1990s, Spade's simple yet voguish handbags were popular peculiarly with upscale, working women.

In recent years, she set up Frances Valentine, a brand-new accessories line named in part after her 13-year-old daughter featuring handbags, shoes and other items.

By Sowmya Sangam