Kate Spade’s apparent suicide is hauntingly similar to the 2014 death of another fashion designer.
On Tuesday, the handbag maven was found unconscious and unresponsive in her New York City Park Avenue apartment by a housekeeper just after 10 a.m. Law enforcement sources revealed that Spade, 55, was found hanging from a red scarf on her bedroom door, a detail that is eerily similar to the 2014 suicide of fashion designer L’Wren Scott that even a police source commented on it.
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“Weird this is the same way L’Wren Scott killed herself. Wonder if it was intentionally done that way,” a police source said, according to Page Six.
Scott, the longtime girlfriend of Mick Jagger, was found dead in her New York apartment in March 2014 at the age of 49. Discovered by her assistant, according to CNN, Scott was reportedly hanging from a black satin scarf that was attached to a doorknob.
Unlike Spade, Scott, a former model and fashion designer who designed clothes for a number of celebrities, including Madonna and boyfriend Mick Jagger, did not leave a suicide note, leaving the circumstances that led to her death a mystery and cause for much speculation in the months and years that followed. The contents of Spade’s reported note have not yet been revealed.
Spade’s apparent suicide marks the third suicide of a high profile fashion designer in less than a decade, with 40-year-old designer Alexander McQueen taking his own life in February 2010.
McQueen, whose real name was Lee Alexander McQueen, was pronounced dead at the scene of his London home on Feb. 11, 2010 after being found by a housekeeper hanging. While his death was not officially ruled a suicide, police claimed that a note left at the scene was not suspicious, and a medical examiner ruled his death was due to asphyxiation and hanging.
In the wake of Spade’s death, people flocked to social media to mourn the iconic designer, who started her namesake company, Kate Spade New York, with her husband in 1993.
“Kate Spade, the visionary founder of our brand, has passed. Our thoughts are with her family at this incredibly heartbreaking time. We honor all the beauty she brought into this world,” the official Kate Spade New York Twitter account posted.
Many fans have used the tragic loss as a call for better mental health awareness, with the hashtags “MentalHealth” and “MentalHealthAwareness” being used in a number of tweets of those mourning Spade.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
