Beloved designer Kate Spade committed suicide Monday morning in her New York City apartment. We instinctively pose a multitude of questions to ourselves like why and dig for answers still being unraveled to the public eye. 

  Perhaps Lena Dunham offers some of the best insight into grasping what this lost life means: “Kate Spade was more than a designer. She had a quirky visual language that captivated Bat Mitzvah girls and artists alike. She was also a staple of NYC who spread good will. My heart breaks for her family. Thank you, Kate, from one of the millions you made feel beautiful.”

  Following Spade’s death, celebrities and social media users took to Twitter to share their ‘First Grown-up’ Handbag story. For many women across the globe, Spade was their first designer purchase, something they’ll never forget. 

  For me, it’s the black mini Kate Spade backpack sitting on my closet floor. My mom handed it to me when she was cleaning out her own closet. For her it was a token of making more space, but for me it was a token of my first designer bag, even if it was just a hand-me-down. The elegance and slickness of this black bag came everywhere with me from school tours to job interviews, it became more of a staple of my style.

  After a year passed and I changed bags around, I placed it back into my closet and only now do I find myself again admiring its beauty in plainness. 

  Spade had the ability to design intricate items, day-to-day business chic bags for the every day woman and a simple black bag for an eager teen. No matter the customer, Spade’s bags all shared the same stylish and practical bag for a multitude of people. 

  She was only 55 and had much more creativity to share with the world.