Kate Spade and fashion's identity crisis: When a name makes a brand

Jil Sander stepped away from her brand three times in 13 years, finally departing for good in 2013

Soon after fans of Kate Spade learned that the designer had died in an apparent suicide on Tuesday, stunned customers remembered the handbags they purchased after their first big promotion, or the linens they were given for their first home, or the onesies in which they dressed their babies.

Many wondered how the Kate Spade label would fare without Kate Spade.

Spade, though, hadn’t had a role there for more than a decade. By the time of her death, Kate Spade New York had passed from owner to owner, transforming from an accessible luxury to an oft-counterfeited commodity and an