Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Wow, designer Kate Spade is really committed to her new brand, Frances Valentine. Lauren Sherman reports in Business of Fashion that Kate has changed her last name from Spade to Valentine. Sherman writes:
Valentine hopes that the change will differentiate what she’s doing now with what she’s done in the past. As for the name..."It kind of makes [me] sound kind of cool, like a rap star or something," she jokes. "But we’re not trying to be cheeky or coy. It really was to distinguish the name, and separate the two worlds. Obviously we’re super proud of Kate Spade and we want to be respective of both," she says.
At least Valentine is a family name, in addition to being the name of the new line. "Frances is a longtime family name on my dad's side... And then Valentine was my mom's dad's middle name because he was born on Valentine's Day," is how Kate explained it to WWD.
Since Kate Valentine and her husband Andy Spade no longer own the Kate Spade brand, Frances Valentine will be their return to women's fashion and the world of accessories.
"With Frances Valentine, we’ll obviously be an online business and I would love for it to be really, really successful. But I think it remains to be seen. We’ve been looking at locations and have been close to signing a lease for a store, but I think we want to get the shoes and the bags right first. The same way we did at Kate Spade," Valentine told BoF.
Frances Valentine will begin shipping merchandise to retailers the second week of February, and you can check out the brand's Instagram here and sign up here for the brand's email list.
Loading comments...