Latest news with #KateSpade
CNN
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
We found the best early Amazon Prime Day clothing deals on summer styles and beyond
From summer dresses to affordable swimsuits, CNN Underscored editors count on Amazon deals to keep our summer wardrobes (and the rest of our closets) up to date. With Prime Day mere weeks away, we're not-so-patiently anticipating what fashion scores we can scoop — and we already have eyes on a number of early deals that you can shop now. Dokotoo Babydoll Tunic Dress Take 20% off this easy-breezy tunic dress with an empire waist and smocked sleeves. It comes in 17 colors too, so there is sure to be something that suits your style. Skechers Beverlee Tiger Posse Sandals Skechers already has a handful of women's and men's styles marked down. These wedge sandals, now up to 33% off, are perfect for getting your steps in comfortably this summer. The Drop Ilana Poplin Maxi Dress This stylist-approved white dress will keep you comfortable, thanks to its relaxed fit and smooth cotton poplin material. Calvin Klein Straight-Leg Classic Business Casual Pants Shop smarter during Prime Day by stocking up on wardrobe essentials, like these classic work pants from Calvin Klein, which are at the lowest price (in certain sizes) we've seen them this year. Kate Spade New York Carolina Slingback Flats Prime Day is a great time to take advantage of designer deals. Save $60 on these cute slingbacks that will carry you through the seasons, or opt for this under-$50 lookalike pair that are also on sale. Colorfulkoala 6-Inch High-Waisted Biker Shorts With Pockets Biker shorts are a perfect athleisure style for summer dressing, and this pair comes from the editor-loved brand Colorfulkoala. Grab them up to 40% off now and thank yourself later when temperatures rise. Amazon Essentials Men's Chinos These five-pocket chinos are highly rated by reviewers for their comfortable fit and accessible price point. Columbia PFG Super Slack Tide Camp Shirt This performance shirt will keep you cool and protected for any outdoor adventure with its moisture-wicking, sun-protective material. It comes in more colors and patterns than we can count, and this fun shark print is nearly 50% off. Reef Cushion Phantom Flip-Flops Reef has shoes for the whole family up to 66% off. These men's flip-flops, now $20 off, are a reliable pair for backyard hangs and beach days alike. Lacoste Stretch Cotton Paris Polo Every man's summer closet needs a few polo shirts, and it doesn't get more classic than Lacoste. This one comes in a bunch of different colors and is up to 50% off. Adidas Kaptir 3.0 Shoes For guys that want to stay light on their feet, these comfy, cheap sneakers are also light on your wallet. With knit uppers and cushioned, Cloudfoam midsoles, they're great for active days. From basics like polos and work pants to trendy designer clothes and accessories, Amazon's fashion department has plenty of deals for men, women and kids. Just like the main Prime Day event, many of the early deals you'll find are limited-time markdowns, so it's smart to grab the discounts while you can. CNN Underscored has a team of skilled writers and editors who have many years of experience testing, researching and recommending products, and they ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. Our team covers every major sale and is committed to finding the best deals for readers. Fashion and beauty editor Sophie Shaw has covered Prime Day clothing and fashion deals for years, so she is tapped into what deals are actually worth adding to cart.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Happened to Kate Spade? This New Memoir Sheds Light on the Designer's Glamorous Life and Personal Demons
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. Kate Spade left behind a trailblazing legacy in the fashion industry, and her preppy designs have been beloved by everyone from Taylor Swift to Kerry Washington and Mindy Kaling. Now, her longtime friend and former business partner has written a new book that captures the heart of their bond and the story behind their shared success. More from Rolling Stone How to Watch Panthers vs. Oilers Stanley Cup Final Game 6 Online The One in Vegas: 'Friends' Arrives on Las Vegas Strip With New Interactive Fan Experience How to Watch the Oregon State vs. Louisville CWS Re-Match Online $26.96 $28.99 7% off Buy Now On Amazon $28.99 Buy Now on barnes & noble Titled We Might Just Make It After All, the 304-page memoir — released today — is authored by Elyce Arons, an entrepreneur, writer, and co-founder of the Kate Spade brand. Arons met Spade during their college years at the University of Kansas, and from that point on, the two were inseparable, both personally and professionally. This book offers an intimate look at their friendship, the building of a fashion empire, and what it was like to grow up together in New York City. 'We Might Just Make It After All brings us on the rollercoaster of adventures (and misadventures) that the best friends embarked on, from transferring colleges on a whim, to falling in and out of love with suitors, cramming into roach-infested Hell's Kitchen apartments, and eventually designing the chic, simple bag that would launch the pair to global fame,' an official Amazon description of the book states. This story is a powerful read for anyone who has admired Kate Spade's work over the years, has an interest in fashion, or is navigating their own journey through grief (Spade died from suicide in 2018), and is looking for comforting words from someone who's faced a similar loss. $26.96 $28.99 7% off Buy Now On Amazon $28.99 Buy Now on barnes & noble 'This book is not only a deep dive into what it takes to persevere and achieve hard-earned success as female entrepreneurs, but it is also a beautiful portrayal of the complexities of female friendship and the joy, the struggle and power of a deep connection between two unique women, ' said New York Times Best-Selling Author, Brooke Shields, in a review listed on Amazon. 'Elyce's storytelling and relatable characters made me laugh, cry, and reflect on my own friendships. At its core, the book explores profound love and loss, and the story will stay with you long after you turn the last page. I could not put it down.' You can pick up the hardcover on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for under $30. And If you're craving more Kate Spade, shop some of our favorite handbags from the brand — or check out Frances Valentine, the designer's other label, now led by Elyce Arons as CEO. Best of Rolling Stone The Best Audiophile Turntables for Your Home Audio System
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elyce Arons, Cofounder and CEO of Frances Valentine, Reflects on Friendship With Kate Spade, Success of Frances Valentine and New Book
On the eve of the release of her new book, 'We Might Just Make It After All' (Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster) Elyce Arons held court at the Hotel Chelsea Monday night talking about her current business, Frances Valentine, and her long-standing friendship with Kate Spade, with whom she founded the multibillion-dollar fashion company, Kate Spade. Arons and Spade became best friends in college (The University of Kansas and Arizona State University) and eventually moved to New York where they started a line of handbags — ultimately transforming the accessories industry. The Kate Spade brand was eventually sold to Neiman Marcus Group, Liz Claiborne Inc., and ultimately Tapestry Inc., where it lives today. More from WWD How Tapestry Drives Adaptable Digital Journeys With Technology Joanne Crevoiserat Touts 'Step Change' in Tapestry Growth Madison Beer Falls in Love With Friendship in Kate Spade New York's Valentine's Day Collection 2025 Gift Guide Arons and Spade ended up starting another brand, Frances Valentine, in 2016 but Spade died of suicide in 2018. Asked what prompted her to write this book about their long-standing friendship, Arons told WWD, 'It's taken me this long to actually get to a point where I could, but I feel like everyone remembers Katy for how she left us, but not how wonderful and funny and gracious she was. Most people don't because she was pretty shy…..I just feel like I want people to know the great times we had. I mean she was the funniest person you'd ever want to meet.' Arons wrote the book with her husband, Andy Arons. Arons said that after they sold the Kate Spade brand, she and Spade went on to found Frances Valentine with a group of investors. Andy Spade, Kate's husband, is Arons' business partner. While Arons stayed pretty low profile in the ensuing years, the business has been experiencing some impressive gains. Frances Valentine, which has mostly focused on the direct-to-consumer channel, is up 40 percent this year, according to Arons. Frances Valentine's e-commerce is up 284 percent this month-to-date. After COVID-19, Frances Valentine launched the apparel division and brought in a new vice president, who came from Zanella. Today, Frances Valentine sells such retailers as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom (all online), as well as Dillards, where it's available in-store, as well as and the brand's freestanding stores. She declined to disclose the company's volume figure. At present, apparel represents 60 percent of the business, and accessories account for 40 percent. She explained that the business has been primarily e-commerce-driven since they started. They now have nine retail stores, which have been doing well. The breakdown is now 50 percent e-commerce, 30 percent retail and 20 percent wholesale. 'And wholesale and retail are growing really fast,' said Arons. Frances Valentine's nine stores are on Madison Avenue and 73rd Street; Sag Harbor, N.Y.; Dallas; Houston; Palm Beach and Naples, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta, and Alexandria, Va. Cities they're considering for expansion are Nashville; Charlotte, N.C., and Chicago, as well as various cities in California. Describing the Frances Valentine customer, Arons said, 'I think it's a woman who really appreciates individual style. She likes to wear color, and I think that's why a lot of our business is concentrated in the South, and she likes prints. And there's a nostalgic feel to our brand because Katy [Spade] and I were such huge vintage shoppers. We just created these silhouettes that are pieces that you buy today and you want to pull out of your closet 10 years from now, and not feel like it's out of style. They're not trend driven at all. We're the opposite of fast fashion.' Arons said she like to describe the line as 'modern vintage.' 'We put pockets in everything. We make sizes from extra small up to extra large,' she said. Arons said she's part of the three-person design team. While Arons said she doesn't sketch, she said they always 'make what we like.' Arons said they took an eight-year break before they launched Frances Valentine. 'So when we came back, we were like, 'we know how to do this,' We'll do the whole thing again.' But she said that when they sold Kate Spade, they didn't have much of an e-commerce business, and it was just one person sitting in a corner doing e-commerce. 'So when we started Frances Valentine, we knew we had to build data. What we didn't realize was how much the wholesale business had changed and e-commerce had taken over so much, and how influencers had taken over from editors.' The business started in 2014 and was launched in 2016. William McComb, former CEO of Liz Claiborne Inc. (renamed Fifth & Pacific Cos.), is a board adviser. The company makes their collections all over the world. The handbags are made in Italy and Asia, the knits are done in Peru, the denim is made in Turkey and the wovens in India. They also produce some things in the U.S. The sweet spot for dresses is $398. Turning to opportunities for Frances Valentine, Arons said they just had a very successful collaboration with Caddis eyewear, which sold out in 48 hours. They're looking into licensing deals for jewelry, footwear, fragrance, eyewear and home. Best of WWD Macy's Is Closing 66 Stores in 2025 — Here's the List, Live Updates Inside the Demise of Lord & Taylor COVID-19 Spikes Elevate Retail Concerns
Elle
4 days ago
- Business
- Elle
What Was Kate Spade Really Like? Let Her Best Friend Tell You.
Kate Spade was one name, but there were four people behind the brand at its inception. In her new book In We Might Just Make It After All , Arons gets at the thrills of building a brand, the joy of working with Brosnahan, and all the glamour of the '90s in New York. She's also honest about the terror of starting a business with no experience and the surreal feeling of overnight success. It was incredibly fun and also unbelievably stressful. 'When Katy won the CFDA Award [for Accessory Designer of the Year To write the book, Arons paged through years of calendars and mined old memories, some of which were painful. She spoke with about her days being broke in New York, handling the massive success of Kate Spade, and what she hopes the world remembers about Katy. Courtesy of Elyce Arons Arons and Spade. What was it like to look at back at this business you built from the ground-up with your best friend? We always wanted to have a business together in college, but all we had as far as experience goes were waitressing and bartending jobs. We always thought, 'Okay, well maybe we'll start a travel agency.' We had no experience in it, so what were we thinking? But we were 19, 20 years old. We graduated and I moved to New York. Katy eventually made her way to New York, and we both started working in the fashion business in different roles. Then, Andy Spade and Katy called me one night and said, 'Okay, we know what we're going to do. We're going to have a handbag company.' For me, it was a little scary financially [to leave my full-time job]. Luckily, I had no responsibilities besides paying my rent and feeding myself. I didn't have a pet, I didn't have a houseplant at that point, so it seemed like the perfect time for me to be able to do it. At that age I think you're game for new experiences and different things. So, I quit my job, and we started. 'I want to call her every day. There are so many times during the week when I just want to pick up the phone because only she would remember that time or understand.' We worked out of their apartment on Warren Street for about two years. There was no air conditioning. The elevator, if it was on somebody else's floor, you had to call their apartment to say, 'Bring it up.' Or you'd ring and finally somebody would come with it. It was just a constant hassle. But you didn't think about it back then. We couldn't afford to really go to the copy shop and get copies made. So, we did a lot of stuff ourselves. We were very scrappy with everything we did, but it was fun. At the end of the day, we would spend our money on a six-pack of Heineken and take it to our contractor, rather than go buy dinner with it. We were there until 10:00 at night. It was fun. We were so broke, but it's almost like when you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to lose. What was it like working with your best friend? Were there challenges? If you're mad about something, you're going to say the meanest thing to that person that you never would do in a professional setting with anybody else, but at the same time, we probably laughed more than we thought. In the book you're very honest about some of the tensions you experienced in the company. I'm sure people looked at it like you had this extraordinary growth, and you were working with your friends so things must be perfect. But what was it like to see something just skyrocket in popularity so quickly? It was unbelievable. Never in your wildest dreams could something like that happen. It's like winning the lottery, where you just can't believe it. Things happened incrementally over several years. It just seemed like there was always great news around the corner, something that was always happening with us, whether it was Bergdorf Goodman taking our bags, or finding some really great specialty stores around the country that Katy and I always dreamed about being in. Courtesy of Elyce Arons Spade and Arons as sorority sisters at University of Kansas. Your book really gets into the complexity of Katy. I think that she was someone who people so associated with jubilance, happiness, and excitement. But you show how she was always shyer, more reticent, and more press-shy than what we saw. What was it like to see the difference between the real person and this identity of the brand that people put on her? At the beginning when Andy came up with the name, Katy said to all of us in the room, 'Don't expect me to be Kate Spade.' She never wanted to be at the forefront, but she took it on really well, and she did a great job of it. Every time before she had to make a public appearance, she was steeling herself. She got so good at it. She was really a smart person and always was very thoughtful about what she said, and she understood the brand better than anybody. As a person she was funny and mischievous and hysterical. Everybody wanted to be her best friend. I was lucky. There [were] times when [she was] down. I've never felt depression before, so I couldn't understand the depths of how she was feeling on those certain days. The next day, she could be her jubilant, funny, joyful self. I don't think anyone who's lost someone in that way can ever answer the why , because I don't think there is a why. It's a disease. And those of us who don't have it should feel very lucky. We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade Was it difficult to revisit memories for the book? There were some that were difficult. Some of them were even the happiest times we had, because I can't call her today and say, 'Oh, my God, do you remember that?' I want to call her every day. There are so many times during the week when I just want to pick up the phone because only she would remember that time or understand. What do you hope people learn about her from the book? Because she was so private, so many people didn't get to know her. But when she was in a more intimate setting with a group of customers at a department store, those people got to see her and got to know who she really was. She was so personal and so fun, and I just think that that's what people should remember about her, those funny, great times and the clever girl I knew and not how she left us. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Related Stories
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Elyce Arons Opens Up About Her Best Friend, Business Partner And ‘Chosen Family' Kate Spade: ‘She's One In A Million'
Elyce Arons and Kate Spade To the world, she was the chic designer Kate Spade. To Elyce Arons, she was Katy Brosnahan, who she met when both were students at the University of Kansas. In full transparency, KU is also my alma mater, and Arons and I immediately bond over GSP/Corbin, the all-female dorms that she and a young Brosnahan lived in during their first year in college. (I lived in co-ed Ellsworth, but visited friends and sorority sisters across campus there all the time.) Brosnahan was a Kappa; Arons a Chi O. Arons asks me what sorority I was in when we catch up via Zoom. 'Alpha Gam,' I tell her, feeling as though, after reading her new memoir, I've known her for years. After all, Arons—speaking to me in front of several design samples for her latest company, Frances Valentine—may be in New York City now and me in Florida, but we're, at our core, just two girls from Kansas. (Only one of us has won the Kansan of the Year Award in 2025, though, and, spoiler alert—it ain't me.) Arons' memoir about her friendship and business partnership with Spade, We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade, comes out June 17, just days after the seventh anniversary of Spade's death in 2018. 'I didn't plan for it to come out in a particular time,' Arons says. 'It just happened.' The book jacket for "We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade" by Elyce ... More Arons. 'I really thought about writing the book because so many folks have written about her death and how she died and not focused on the life she lived and who she really was—because she was a very private person,' Arons says, alluding to Spade's death by suicide. (Another area Arons and I bond over, though this one unfortunate—I, too, lost someone close to me in the exact same manner Spade died. It's a club neither Arons nor myself want to be in, or focus on, for that matter.) 'A lot of people didn't get to know her intimately. But I hope to give a peek into this funny, gracious, wonderful, charismatic person I knew so well—because she's one in a million. She really was. And I felt lucky that she was my friend.' It's taken time for Arons to be in an emotional place to put pen to paper on her decades-long friendship with Spade. 'After we lost her, it was a really difficult period,' she says. 'And I'm a little worried that I'm starting to forget things now, and I wanted to put 'em all down on paper.' Elyce Arons says she wanted to capture her decades-long friendship with Kate Spade not only for ... More others to enjoy, but to preserve her memories of their special bond. 'If I don't do it now, when am I going to do it?' she adds. 'My brain's not going to be any fresher two years from now or five years from now than it is today.' She had the help of calendars she'd kept all the way back to the 1980s, and spiral notebooks and the memories of friends. 'It is very cathartic walking back that far and looking at that—all those things,' she says. And so she did. The book's title is a play off of The Mary Tyler Moore theme song—Arons smiles as she suffers through my rendition of it, singing 'we're gonna make it after allllll'—and both Spade and Arons were gigantic fans of Moore's. Just three weeks before Arons and I spoke, she was introduced to Dr. Robert Levine, Moore's husband, who invited Arons to come out to the farm they once shared and see Moore's clothes in her closet, which remain there after her death in 2017. It was amazing, Arons tells me; she even tried on some of Moore's clothes. When I ask Arons what Spade—who we call Katy throughout the conversation—would have thought of this, it's a reminder of all that Spade is missing, and all that's missing that she's no longer here. 'She would've loved it,' Arons says. For what it's worth, I say, that serendipitous moment feels like what I'm calling a 'Katy wink.' The first word that comes to mind when Arons thinks of Spade? 'So funny,' she tells me. 'She remained funny her whole life.' Elyce Arons and Kate Spade 'We were very unlikely to be friends, and something just clicked right at the beginning,' Arons says. 'We liked a lot of the same things, and we found the same things really funny, and we were constantly playing pranks on each other. So a lot of people would be like, 'You guys are sick. I can't believe you do that to each other.'' They also bonded at KU over vintage shopping, and both eventually transferred to Arizona State University and, after college, ended up in New York City. Through it all, 'she totally remained the same person,' Arons says. 'And one of the things about her, she was one of the most gracious people you'd ever want to meet. She wanted to make everybody feel comfortable all the time. If somebody spilled something in her house, she was like, 'Oh, don't worry.' She never allowed anyone to feel bad or out of place anywhere. And it was a gift of hers.' Another gift, it turned out, was business. Back in the day, the two women talked about opening a vintage store together. They even talked about opening a travel agency together. But, Arons says, they had no money to do either. Arons always wanted to live in New York City, but her best friend 'could have stayed in Arizona, she could have moved to California, she could have gone to Chicago—and all of those things were on the table,' Arons tells me of Brosnahan's life immediately post-college. 'So it was lucky for me that when she came back through from her Europe trip that she only had $5 in her pocket, because it forced her to come to my apartment and then end up staying.' Eventually work took Arons out of New York City, but an idea from Katy to start a handbag line (after seeing the lack of chic American-designed bags on the marketplace while she was working at Mademoiselle) brought Arons back to the Big Apple. It was Andy Spade, by now Kate's partner, who encouraged her to start the company. When they asked Arons to join them, she had no idea how she could quit her job and uproot based on an idea alone. 'But I also really believed in Katy's idea, and believe me, at the beginning, I said, 'Handbags—what do we know about handbags?'' Arons says. 'And she said, 'Well, I know what's not available that I really want.'' She found the white space: a bag that wasn't outrageously expensive yet was also not insultingly cheap; a bag somewhere in the middle 'that is chic and that works for everybody—and it just doesn't exist out there right now,' Arons recalls Spade telling her. So Arons said yes and, along with Kate and Andy and Pamela Bell, co-founded a company that came to define a generation. And while it wasn't always easy—and that can't be overstated—the brand Kate Spade found success because it was 'something different, something unique in the market, and doing it really well and not sacrificing on quality,' Arons says. 'I think it's having the right product at the right time, and I think being an authentic person or people really matters.' The two women worked together on both Kate Spade and, later, Frances Valentine. Spade and Arons weren't just best friends, but they were sisters—and an entirely other layer was added becoming business partners. While Spade's name was on the bags, Arons was as involved in the brand as anybody. When they hired a team—which grew to about 350 at their corporate office and about 20 retail stores—'I mean, you had to be talented, but probably the most important thing was you had to be polite,' Arons says. 'And we really stuck to it, because you're at work all day long. You're sitting next to people and you should have fun with them. You should enjoy each other's company and you should be respected. And the people we brought in, I have to say, it really makes a difference. We had a blast. We'd have parties for our team all the time, and the bigger we got, the bigger the parties got. It was so much fun. I loved those days. I ran into one of our former senior managers who had come as a younger man and kind of risen in the ranks while he was there. And he looked at me and he said, 'None of us ever knew what we had until we left.'' If you're thinking that Spade and Arons' friendship and business partnership was perfect—think again. 'I've never fought harder or more with any person in my life than with her,' Arons tells me. Their friendship was 'one that you're never going to lose, no matter what you say, no matter the venom that comes out of your mouth and the anger that you have at that one moment. I'm not a person who can stay mad. Katy could stay mad. And that was one difference between us, because I would feel guilty and horrible two seconds after I hang up the phone. The guilt just overtakes me. And so I'd always walk by [and say], 'I'm so sorry,' but she, on the other hand, would just not answer my calls. And then it was torment for me for hours until she called me back.' More than being friends, 'I'd probably say we were sisters more than anything else,' adding that they were 'chosen family.' 'It was such a close friendship that I think a lot of people in life don't get to experience what I got to experience, and I'm so grateful,' Arons says. Elyce Arons After the brand's formation in 1993, in those early days they exclusively sold handbags, but eventually expanded to sell clothing, jewelry, shoes, eyewear, fragrances, stationary and more. By 2006, Spade sold the remainder of her shares in the business to Neiman Marcus Group, who in turn sold the label that year to Liz Claiborne Inc. for $124 million. (The company was later purchased by Coach, Inc. in May 2017.) Both Spade and Arons' identities were tied up 'with this business that we had created for so long, and then all of a sudden, nothing,' Arons tells me. While both Spade and Arons were focused at the time on raising kids, 'We both really missed fashion, and we missed creating things and we missed working,' Arons says. 'I had never not worked a day in my life.' Elyce Arons met Katy Brosnahan, as she was then known, as freshmen at the University of Kansas. Eventually, in 2016, they launched a new collection of luxury handbags and footwear under the brand name Frances Valentine. Being out of the business for those years in between stepping away from Kate Spade and launching Frances Valentine saw a huge shift in the industry for Spade and Arons—e-commerce took over from retail and influencers took over from editors and 'the whole landscape had shifted,' Arons says. 'You don't realize how things changed so quickly.' Social media barely existed when Spade and Arons left Kate Spade. 'So when we started, there were so many things we had to learn,' Arons says. 'But we were doing well, things were just starting to happen. And that's when we lost Katy.' 'I didn't really know whether we should move forward or not,' Arons says about running Frances Valentine in the aftermath of Spade's death. 'But I thought about it. I talked to the team and, really for her legacy's sake and for her family and for the team that we had built there, and I thought Katy would want us to do it. So we kept the company going.' Elyce Arons still runs Frances Valentine, which she founded with Spade. The company is now 26 employees strong at the corporate office in addition to its retail stores, so it has 'a little bit over 100 total,' Arons tells me. She is co-founder, CEO 'and janitor,' she laughs, adding that she felt like after Spade's death 'I had to stay really strong, because I not only had to run the company alone when I was used to having someone side-by-side with me who I really trusted, [but] I had to recruit investors and bring more money into the company at the same time and design everything without her,' she says. 'And one of those things alone would've been enough. But having to do all of those things—and thank God we've got such an amazing team of people here, we all banded together and got things done—but I think the thing that I've learned the most is really to appreciate and value the relationships you have with people. And don't take any of 'em for granted.' Elyce Arons is telling her story seven years after Kate Spade's sudden passing. In We Might Just Make It After All, Arons details the morning she got the news that Spade had died. Spade's assistant called her 'and told me to make sure I was sitting down,' Arons writes. 'Then he told me that Katy had taken her own life. I didn't believe him at first. When he finally got through to me, I let out a cry of distress from a grief so deep that I barely remember what happened next.' Arons details in the book a live, on-camera interview where she was asked 'If you could ask Kate one question, what would it be?' Arons' sense of humor shines as she writes, 'As I was sitting there with the live cameras trained on me, the question that popped into my head was: 'Where's my pink skirt?' She'd borrowed it months ago. Of course I didn't say that on live television. My answer was 'I would have asked her, 'Why?'' Many moons ago, Spade wrote Arons a letter about their rock solid bond as friends turned sisters. She sobbed when she initially read it, and when she reads it now, she still sobs. Of their friendship of 35 years—so beautifully detailed in the book—'I've been really lucky.' Of her life—even the rough spots like losing Spade nearly eight years ago to the day—she adds, 'I've had all these different chapters that are completely different. I mean, I was a single woman having cocktails and partying and smoking cigarettes. And then the next chapter I was a mom on the school board playing tennis and taking cooking classes. I had multitudes. I've had a magical life, and it's all been amazing.'
