YouSaid · the spoken record

Kate Spade

lines on the record: 48
first: 2017-02-06
most recent: 2017-02-06
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I mean, honestly, people constantly are saying, you know Jack and Kate fight or you know Kate Jack's faith and then I don't want to embarrass him but I'll say oh you meet Andy and they're like oh Andy”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Funny because I do look at it and I don't, people said, oh, do you have any regrets? I remember thinking, oh, I hope I don't. And I never have. And I think they've done such a good job that luckily I don't have to have. And we do walk by the stores and I have a funny story that we actually walked into a store to buy my daughter something. We went to the cash register and she said, are you on our mailing list? And I said, I don't think so. And so then I used my maiden name. And I said, she said, Brozni, and then my daughter kind of kept nudging me. She was dying for me to say something. And I didn't. And then I remembered thinking, you know. I'm not on your mailing list, but I think I helped create it.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. I would say it's both. I feel a little more confident. I think Andy feels the same because we've done it before. But on the same hand, you think that people are expecting a great deal. So there's still a lot of pressure, trust me. And we're self-financing again. So I'm not crazy about, as I mentioned earlier, losing any money. So, you know, this thing better work.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We are doing shoes and handbags. And we actually, when we started, it was initially just shoes. And although we've only been in business for about a year.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and I thought it was important to make sure that we weren't stepping on any toes and that we distinguished our company. And I think that was important for both of us. I mean, people still call me Kate Spade. I go by it, but I get confused myself. So you can call me Francis if you want.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did, well, I added it. I didn't change it. I just added Francis Valentine into it. So it's very. It's Catherine Noel Francis Valentine Brosni in Spain. It's like pretty long.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I'll say from my perspective, I remember people saying, how do you work together? And I was thrilled. And Andy one day said, listen, I said, oh, wait up, wait up. I'm not ready yet. And he said, oh, no, no. Let me tell you right now. If you think that every day we're going to go to office together and we're going to have lunch together, he said, that's not happening. We actually worked on separate floors for that very reason because I had a tendency to go into his office and he'd be on the phone and I'd say, get off the phone. I have something to tell you or ask you. And we had to really, I had to myself find boundaries. And we had to make conscious effort not to talk about it 24-7, which is, as you can tell by how quickly I talked my tendency. And I also am very nervous person. I worry a lot. And Andy could not be more different.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they understood that the new owners understood. And they were very gracious. And I think we all handed it very well. And it was seamless. It was a very quiet exit.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we had a baby in 2005, and I just remember thinking. It was a perfect opportunity, and I think the point was that Neiman Marcus at the time was selling themselves to Texas Pacific. And they involved us, and I must give them a lot of credit for that. But when we sold, I remember thinking, now it's kind of like we have a boss. And I remember thinking, I want to leave on good terms. It was a perfect time to leave. I wanted to spend time with my daughter. It was, you've heard so many horror stories about people who sell and then they stay and then they fight and then they sue. And I just thought, oh, that's too ugly for me. So we left on great terms. We saved. We did a turnover for a year, I think we were there. Yeah.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was about true, yes, the counterfeit. Which Andy said that's actually a compliment. He said, you know, you're doing something right when they're on every blanket on every street corner.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'd say it was about 97. It was still very New York, though, I must say. Very New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and I think it was about 98 or 90 where you would see them in any city that you went to”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then hiring people that had more experience. So I really had a lot of people around, and Andy did. Art department, and I really had great designers with me, and I think we really developed employees that were amazing.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We did, but we had done that actually in the process slowly, slowly changing offices, and we take a floor and then we take another floor in the building. And then we started hiring people, PR and different departments and production people.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We started going into more categories because they were encouraging that, which a lot of the stores, not just Niemeno, it was acted. All of them were really encouraging us to branch out into other categories. So we did stationary next, which that was right when the phones and emails and all that were replacing people writing notes. And people came to us and they said, well, when we said another category, we didn't mean a dying category. So I think what they were implying was shoes. They really wanted some real substantial. Second categories or third, fourth. So then we started doing shoes and it really just started, you know, I think it was just a good boost”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it was also a safety net, quite honestly, for us personally. And it was Neven Marcus, and we thought that would be somebody that would be in a position to help us.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it was more fun for my mom, actually. But it was a lot of fun. I have to say in the Opening of stores, you know, we had opened a store in Soho tiny little 300 square foot store and the next thing, you know, we're opening a bigger store in New York and then we're opening in Los Angeles and Chicago. And it was kind of at that point it became a little dizzying and a bit of a whirlwind, but it was fun.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's exactly what happened. I mean, it really was just kind of a little bit of a snowball effect. You know, it just got a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger. And I think... At the point where the larger department stores were picking us up, I think then we realized, I think we have a business here. We loved it. We kept getting larger and larger spaces and stores, which is very important. You know, at first, you're on a tiny little table. Then maybe you get a few bigger space and shelves, and the next thing you know, you have store and store, shop and shop is what they call them, where your name is above it, really big”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What you have to realize is when that happens, although it's very good, you also have to upfront pay for the production. They don't pay you for 30 to 60 days. So I remember thinking, how are we going to afford this? But we never borrowed a dime ever.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say the stores really started to buy more. We were in Saxe and Niemans and when the larger department stores started to buy, it kind of really took off and we won the CFDA Award, which is the Council of Fashion Designers of America. And there were reporters from around the country, not just New York at the show that were saying, you know, oh my, who is this? And so that really, really helped us a great deal, I have to say.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was hard. I mean, we were still not making any money. Nobody was making a salary. We were, Andy was funding everything. And at that point, we were all kind of putting money, and Pamela would put in some elise. And I just remember thinking, oh, again, it's like, ooh.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and I remember calling back to Elise and Pamela in New York and I said, I think we need to shut it down. I said, it's wow.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, he did. And I thought I could go back and forth. And at the time, Elise and Pamela would hold down the New York part and I would do fedexing all my designs and materials.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We are, and what we ended up doing was we took on two partners for sweat equity only. It was my friend Elise Aaron's, my best friend since I was eighteen, and then Pamela Bell, someone that we just met through friends here in New York. So the three of us were in cars going to the factories. I was really doing the design only, but I also was steaming the bags box and packing all of it.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because they really didn't think it would be much. I still should be upset with them about that. Hopefully they're listening.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did, most of whom were editors, who were getting them at a very good discount. But eventually we started to see it. And I remember thinking when I did, that was a big deal. And, you know, I think it took people a while. Even my family, my sister was working at Gucci and actually called me and said, we're all pitching in for mom for Mother's Day to get her a Gucci bag. And I thought,”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the orders would not be that big because it was hard to for people at that time to kind of, once they started selling, then you get bigger orders. So it was really very gradual. I mean, it was at least three years before we paid ourselves. Maybe 15,000 a year. I mean”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, we had to move to a loft and Tribeca because we were in a small apartment. Oh, that's right. We moved to a loft. We had boxes, honestly, guy everywhere. To the point where our loft bed was up these stairs that we'd crawl up, the entire apartment was just a sea of brown boxes, but that sounds like we were doing very well. It really was. We were still.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that was Andy because I was not Kate Spade. I was Kate Brosnahan and I kept coming up with these names and Andy kept saying Kate Spade because we were 50-50 partners. And finally, I just said, okay, and everyone said, I love it. Kate Spade, New York, and I remember telling to your point about my Catholic parents. I told my mom, honestly, she burst into flames. I mean, she was like, but you're not Kate Spade. And I said, I know, but she said, oh, now you'll never be Kate Spade. Now you've, you know, you've jinxed it. And why would you name it Kate Spade? And I said, well, it's my first name, his last name. And it's like Dolce and Gabbana. And she goes, who the hell's that? And I said that for mine. I said, it'll work. We hope.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, they thought they were beautiful, but I knew they thought they were interesting. And we did. We got a lot of credits. And that's when my mother first found out, and she was embarrassed, and she called and said, you know, how embarrassing that you didn't tell me, and my friend had to tell me. And I said, oh, you know, I don't know. I don't want to make a big deal of this. And, you know, okay, it's one credit. That's not a business”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think because it wasn't anything anyone was doing. And everyone, there's a fabric show in Paris called Premier Vision that all the designers go to. So sometimes you could end up with the same materials. Mine came out of the yellow pages. Chances are I wasn't going to run into any people that had the same materials. So we were doing something different, which was really to our advantage.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well I remember crying because when I came home we hadn't even sold enough to cover the cost of the booth and I started crying and Andy said well who did you get? And I said Well we got Barney's and he said OK and I said Fred Siegel in Los Angeles and he was like right and then he goes Katie he said you've got two of the best stores in America Why are you crying? I said, I think we should shut it down. I'm very concerned and I said I have no interest in losing money. I said and we you know we've already spent $4,000 and now that's it for me. I'm not a gambler so that's for Andy was like no keep going and also I have to give a great deal of credit to the editors now at the time we weren't selling a lot but the editors were putting us in the magazines a lot”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Freaking out. I was because the editors come by as well as the buyers. The trade shows. And I really didn't tell my parents or my family about it or anyone for that matter because I thought if it doesn't work, I will be so embarrassed because everyone kept saying, why would you have quit your job? You had insurance, blah, blah, blah. And who do you think you are? I just knew my family would just, you know. Oh, you got a little hot headed, big headed there in New York, and think you can start this company. So I kept it on the down low.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Trade shows and you have to get accepted. And we did, and of course, you know, you get the worst spot because all the famous people end up in the front.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“25. So I called, I looked in the yellow pages and I looked up burlap and I found a potato sack company that was willing to sell to me. And they had three different weights, and I needed the heaviest weight so that it was substantial enough for a handbag. And that was actually our first collection.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He wasn't a designer, he was a manufacturer. So he did the production. And so I brought in my samples. And he was like, okay, well, I want some money up front. And he really was very nervous that I wasn't going to pay him. But he took our tiny little production honestly, which would be 10 bags at a time, you know.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But someone in the fashion department said, Oh, it's so odd. I know someone and he had left himself this production guy to start his own business.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's funny I did not know and I did start by buying big sheets of white paper and I would cut out and tape honestly the shape that I wanted and then I'd look at it and I'd make it shorter, smaller, cut it and I went to a pattern maker that I found in the back of Women's Were Daily. She advertised that she made patterns. So I contacted her. She worked out of her apartment and she was as patient as could be with me because I didn't know anything. And I remember being really embarrassed about that, that I wasn't, you know, a student from Parsons or RISD or FIT, that I really didn't know what I was doing. And I honestly started with paper. Then we'd make a sample out of any kind of fabric, muslin. And then I kind of got the shape down and I had to find a manufacturer. So I called Women's Redaily. They connected me to a department that they really said we don't do that.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely he had actually said it before I quit, so I kind of already had it in the back of my mind. And I remember at the very beginning thinking, why didn't I stay? I could have made an income while I was working on this. And someone said to me, the truth is you would never have done it had you stayed because I wouldn't have been as scrappy or as, I mean, it was kind of, you know, do or die. So I think if I'd still been working, I would have been like a little bit more laxadaisical about it. When you don't have an income coming in, you're doing whatever you can to make it happen.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At the time things were very, bags were too complicated and I really loved very simple kind of architectural shapes and I would wear these very simple shapes, none of which were famous designers. I mean there were no names. If someone were to say whose is that, I'd say, I don't know. I bought it at a venture store or it's a straw bag I got in Mexico. And they were all very square and simple. And I thought, gosh, I mean, why can't we find something just clean and simple and modern?”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's funny, you know, Andy and I were talking one night and I just said I was looking ahead and I saw the fashion directress that would be your next jump from being senior fashion editor. And I thought, I don't really see myself wanting that job. So Andy and I were out honestly at a Mexican restaurant and he just said, what about handbags? And I said, honey, you just don't start a handbag company. And he said, why not? How hard can it be? I thought, okay, really. He regrets those words.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was first assistant with a senior fashion editor, and then I was promoted to associate editor, and I was in charge of all the accessories. And I did that for a couple years, then they promoted me to senior fashion editor. And if there's one thing I did learn was how to be very resourceful. And it came in very handy for when we started our business because, I mean, it was do not come back to me with no. I mean, you figure it out. I mean, it would be, we have to go on a shoot in two days and we need eight tickets to the Bahamas and figure out how to get us all there. I mean, if we're all on different airplanes, I don't care, but get us there. And I Make it happen.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They never really said much, but my mother was not pleased with it. She was not pleased with it at all. But I mean, I just kept saying it was a matter of economics. We were just being practical. Did you actually land a job in”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And I kept saying, oh, I'm coming back. I will only stay here for six months. Well, first of all, it was three months. Then I moved it to six. And then finally I said, I have to be honest. I kind of like my job. I loved it and I loved the fast pace of New York. And suddenly it just, I loved it.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I started as an assistant, so I was tying models, shoes on a photo shoot because they couldn't bend over in their clothes, that or getting hairstylists snickers. I'm telling you whatever. I ironed and carried bags, and it was a lot of work. I'll say that.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was kind of, I really was expecting to go back to Arizona to be with Andy, but that's where my ticket. It started and ended in New York. And I didn't have the money to get back, so I needed a job in order to do that. So I started at a template and I was typing and they said, I don't think this is going to work out. And then she called the next day and said, can you get ready right now? Kind of an ascalt. And they have a job in the fashion department. So they ended up hiring me. They didn't want to because I couldn't type. And my boss said, listen, she's great and I don't need her to type a lot because we were doing fashion shoots and styling. So it wasn't as, you know.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“travelled around and came back to New York and went to a temp agency because I desperately needed some money. Why did you?”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We worked together at a clothing store and I was on the women's side. He was on the men's side, and one day his car broke down and he asked me for a ride home. Then we really started off as really great friends.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were still not making any money. Nobody was making a salary. Andy was funding everything. I just remember thinking, I think we need to shut it down. I said, it's.”
2017-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT