It was with great sadness that I learned about the tragic death of the American handbag designer Kate Spade, in the news last week.
I first came across one of her iconic handbags in New York in the early 90's. I was doing my normal routine of checking out the handbag competition in the vast downtown malls, looking for ideas and trends when a quirky pink tote bag caught my eye.
Kate Spade? She's new I thought, and how very refreshing! Kate's colourful designs stood out as unique and different amongst the sea of regular American style merchandise.
Success then came quickly to her and Kate Spade soon grew into a major mid-American brand.
As I frequently travelled to the USA I would always check out her stores and admire her unique and quirky designs.
Kate was the same age as me and started in the bag business around the same time, it's a very sad loss.
One hundred and fifty years ago the islanders of the Outer Hebrides created a unique cloth, a tweed entirely woven by hand that was to become world famous, known today as Harris Tweed.
It was with great sadness that I learned about the tragic death of the American handbag designer Kate Spade, in the news last week. 
