Since Liz Fraser assumed the role of chief executive officer and brand president of Kate Spade Recent York in March 2020, she has guided the $1.4 billion lifestyle brand through the pandemic, store closures and reopenings, a hybrid work schedule and latest ways of working.

For the last fiscal yr, the brand experienced a 22 percent increase to attain record revenues.

“I remain definitely more enthusiastic about Kate Spade today than I used to be even once I began,” Fraser said in an interview on the brand’s Manhattan headquarters. “I believe this can be a remarkable brand with tremendous elasticity and yet is so clear what it’s. That’s an unusual combination. So we are able to do a Kate Café, we are able to do one million things. It’s just picking what we would like to do and when.”

Amongst a few of the projects underway in 2023 are a latest retail design concept for its freestanding stores; a collaboration with Pantone for Kate Spade Green; a partnership with Thred Up, and jewelry-only boutiques. She can also be collaborating closely along with her latest design team, which she brought in in 2021.

And after all, there’s the move.

Kate Spade will likely be moving out of the corporate’s offices at 2 Park Avenue into 10 Hudson Yards, where its parent Tapestry relies, in a yr and a half and will likely be redesigning the office set-up to accommodate the brand new ways of working.

“Redoing the office will likely be an interesting project to take into consideration how do people wish to work. It really gives us a probability to redo the office and design the office of the long run,” said Fraser, who previously held leadership roles as president of Lafayette 148, CEO of Anne Klein, and president of Marc Jacobs, having cut her teeth at firms equivalent to Esprit de Corp., Escada, Liz Claiborne inc. and Calvin Klein.

Kate Spade currently occupies two-and-a-half floors at 2 Park Avenue. “With the quantity that we’re using, we actually don’t need two-and-a-half floors,” she said. For instance, rows of desks aren’t any longer obligatory. “Just attempting to give you communal work spaces is the concept,” she said.

Fraser shared that she had interviewed for a leadership role at Kate Spade multiple times. “This was like my fourth or fifth time. I’ve at all times been an enormous Kate fan. I used to be the president of Marc by Marc, and there have been a number of similarities — strong culture, accessories orientation, color, fun, wit, but I could never get anybody to come back from Kate over. No person ever wants to go away Kate Spade, and that’s still the case. The culture’s very, very strong,” she said.

Fraser herself gets high marks from the industry for her leadership skills.

In keeping with Jaimee Marshall, managing director of Kirk Palmer Associates, the chief search firm, who didn’t place her within the Kate Spade role but has worked along with her as a client, “Liz is absolutely certainly one of the special executives in our industry. She operates with transparency and high integrity and that’s rare. She is strategic, disciplined, balanced, knowledgeable in regards to the end-to-end process, brand-oriented and just a stunning person to work with.”

As Kate Spade celebrates its thirtieth birthday this yr, Fraser said that milestone presents a possibility to look back, but in addition to look forward. The pandemic gave the team the prospect to dig deep into who Kate Spade is, who’s their customer, what do they stand for and what are they known for.

Kate Spade accounted for 21.6 percent of Tapestry’s total net sales in fiscal 2022 of $6.7 billion, in line with a 10-K filed last August.

“We’re uber customer-oriented,” said Fraser, adding they know rather a lot in regards to the customers’ likes and dislikes and in addition are “super emotionally connected” to her.

“Our customers are passionate and constant brand fans. They know us, and so they love us,” she said. Within the U.S., the shopper’s age ranges from low 30s to high 40s, but can stretch lower and better.

For instance, she believes the brand reaches a younger customer because Kate Spade is the number-one fashion brand in tech cases, and the number-nine tech case brand in North America, in line with NPD.

Kate Spade has 400 stores worldwide, greater than half of that are within the U.S. One among the most important initiatives is a latest design concept for the stores. “We call it Uptown, Downtown,” Fraser said. The corporate began the project a couple of yr ago. “It’s a nod to our Recent York heritage. We play in the strain of the 2,” she said.

Kate Spade unveiled the primary store with the brand new concept in Singapore last October. “It’s type of residential. It’s a mixture of uptown and downtown ideas and feelings, it’s a bit whimsical equivalent to the Kate Spade green piano and it really pulls people in,” she said.

The corporate has launched a latest customer strategy, which it is looking “The Great Escape” because “shopping should transport you. It ought to be your best, most fun times,” Fraser said. “We predict that the shop concept really does evoke that.” For a hot climate, the brand uses rattan, and the wallpaper has palm trees. The Northern Hemisphere stores have different furniture and so they are more upholstered. She said the shop in Ginza, Japan, which is in a town house, is slated to have a design makeover and reopen in November.

“This can be a really big move for us. It shows the brand’s personality. It’s whimsy, it’s fun, and shows the energy of the brand and it’s doing incredibly well in all places that we opened up, bringing in all types of recent customers,” she said.

Accessories account for 80 percent of the Kate Spade business and within the last fiscal yr women’s handbags generated $819.5 million, up from $681.5 million within the prior yr, in line with the 10-K. One among the things the corporate is enthusiastic about is the life-style facets of the Kate Spade brand. “We now have such a possibility in footwear, ready-to-wear, jewelry is already a reasonably large business. This store concept really highlights different store categories. Where the brand new concept is in place we’re over-indexing on the life-style categories,” she said.

One other latest initiative is launching a jewelry-only store in a central London transportation hub in June.

“Jewelry is a category that does play really young. We now have a improbable business within the U.K. with jewelry. It’s going to be a bit jewel box store since it’s tiny.” It would be fashion jewelry, but they’re also launching high-quality jewelry.

“We all know that we’re a celebration brand. We all know that folks come to us to mark those big moments of their life, it may very well be their first job. If I had a dollar for each time I meet someone who tells me their first bag was Kate Spade after they began working, or a diaper bag. We’re the number-one searched brand for bridal registry,” the CEO said.

“It already is a very good business, but when we actually lean a bit harder into high-quality [jewelry] we may be everybody’s highschool or college graduation gift,” she continued. She said Kate Spade has been doing jewelry for 12 to fifteen years and has a powerful core business, but it could possibly also do novelty.

The London unit is the prototype store, however the concept could easily be rolled out globally. “Each time I mention it, every landlord’s ears perk up. It’s different, and it’s at all times difficult what to do with these small spaces. It’s 450 square feet,” she said.

She said the corporate can also be trying to open more Kate Spade full-line stores across the U.S. A store just opened outside Chicago in Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Illinois, with the brand new design concept, and a store on the Royal Hawaiian Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, will open Friday. A couple of stores in China are also opening imminently.

Closer to headquarters, Kate Spade’s Recent York flagship at Rockefeller Center is right for the redesign, she said. “Soon it’ll be happening there,” Fraser noted. Through the pandemic, the brand developed a neighborhood customer for that location, which has generally attracted tourists. In Recent York, Kate Spade also has stores on Broome Street in SoHo, Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center.

One other development is launching a program with Pantone to introduce Kate Spade Green. The brand had been planning to redo its packaging and wanted the packaging, which uses recycled materials, to be green. The tote bags which can be given out with purchase “you’ll have endlessly,” and are supposed to be reused. The packaging launches in February. The paper can also be recyclable.

“Green is our heritage color. When the brand first began, all of the designs were green. Green was a crucial color. As we were diving into our heritage and understanding our DNA, green just really popped out. We began working with Pantone to ascertain Kate Spade Green because we would like it to be endlessly, and we would like to dive into our green-ness, and so they’re the people to do it with,” Fraser said.

It was an 18-month project and Kate Spade Green is anticipated to be an ongoing hue at Pantone.

At its fall presentation at The Whitney Museum on Feb. 10, Kate Spade can have a Green Room and there will likely be green taxis parked outside, which is able to ride around Recent York City for 10 days.

When Kate Spade herself originally began designing the road, she put the labels contained in the bag and on the last minute she pulled it out and placed it on the surface of the bag. “That was a genius inspiration moment, and we’re bringing that back,” Fraser said. They’re reissuing the unique Sam bag this spring, a boxy handbag, for the brand’s thirtieth anniversary, which is constituted of recycled nylon. It is available in greater than six colours, equivalent to Kate Spade Green, pink cloud, watercolor blue, true white, pistachio cream and black, and latest novelty designs with embellishments, equivalent to beaded raffia, sequin gingham and pastel paillette sequins.

The Sam Icon can also be offered in a spread of sizes and silhouettes, equivalent to a small tote, mini tote, shoulder bag, convertible crossbody, belt bag and backpack.

Kate Spade can also be adding latest labels across categories, including rtw. The woven label is black with white typography or, depending on the product, could also be a white label and black logo to best match the design.

The corporate plans to introduce a capsule collection for Kate Spade Green for spring that spans rtw, shoes, jewelry, eyewear, home and purses and ships in February. In future seasons Kate Spade Green will likely be infused into the gathering in alternative ways.

Fraser said they’ve been capable of use more recyclable materials not only within the Sam bag, but other styles as well and so they’re using more biological leathers which can be more sustainably done.

In February, Kate Spade will even begin a partnership with ThredUp where it’ll introduce “Pre-Loved,” a 360 resale program that can allow customers to buy secondhand products directly through Kate Spade’s website and resell apparel. The partnership is a one-year term with the choice to renew. Kate Spade will start marketing the launch across channels on Monday. Customers can earn Kate Spade Recent York shopping credit for sending in gently worn items from eligible brands. To participate, customers can generate a prepaid shipping label from katespade.thredup.com, fill any shippable box or bag with women’s and kid’s items from any brand of their closet, and ship it to ThredUp without cost. For items that sell on ThredUp, customers receive Kate Spade Recent York shopping credit that may be used each online and in-store.

She said the corporate’s efforts in mental health, well-being and yoga have been happening for awhile, and individuals are much more keen about it. The brand has a goal of touching 100,000 women by 2025 with direct mental health help. It’s already at 66,000 women thus far.

Kate Spade also began a Social Impact Council with a couple of dozen women who’re experts in the sphere and so they participated in probably the most recent U.N. General Assembly.

When questioned on whether there’s any stigma to the brand since its founder died of suicide in June 2018, Fraser said, “I believe the world is changing. One among the things we’re very committed to is that this topic because we expect it ought to be de-stigmatized. I’m really happy with this number. We’re the number-one funder of ladies’s mental initiatives on the earth. We gave $3 million last yr between ourselves and our foundation. There ought to be rather a lot more being done.”

Even before Spade’s death, they were involved in mental health initiatives, she said. “Together with her passing, it really galvanized people much more.” Although Spade wasn’t there physically and had sold the corporate years before her death, Fraser said, “She’s an icon within the industry, she’s an icon for our customers, she’s an icon for our employees. She was an incredible person with an incredible vision. What she did was revolutionary.”

Kate Spade can also be working with Harlem’s Fashion Row and students from Bowie State University, Maryland’s oldest HBCU (historically black colleges and universities), are given access to have interaction with Kate Spade Recent York’s team of executive leaders and designers. The scholars are learning about all facets of the accessories business and are currently within the second semester.

When Fraser first got here to the corporate she considered its origin story, and that it was a collaboration between Kate and Andy Spade. “We’re a brand of storytellers. How we pull that story through product, visual merchandising, to digital, to the way it feels in the shop, is absolutely hard to do. My considering was to create a creative collaboration.”

In April 2021, Fraser hired Jennifer Lyu and Tom Mora because the two heads of design. Mora is currently senior vp and head of design for rtw and lifestyle categories, while Lyu is senior vp, head of design for leather goods and accessories. They succeeded Nicola Glass, who was creative director.

Their first collection was for fall 2022, and Fraser said she sees a noticeable change. “The extent of cohesion and the clarity of the storytelling is remarkable. I like how we see through the showrooms and windows and the way it could possibly look within the stores,” she said.

While 80 percent of the business is in accessories, the remaining 20 percent is rtw and footwear, in addition to 20 licensed categories equivalent to tableware, housewares, fashion bedding, tech accessories, watches, sleepwear, eyewear, stationery and fragrances.

The corporate stepped back a bit from rtw and pulled it out of some stores to work on the fit, quality and pricing. “It’s been back in since Tom began, and ready-to-wear is selling very well,” Fraser said. Outerwear and dresses are their two biggest rtw categories, she noted. She added the brand is well-known for occasion and going out clothes. At its Feb. 10 fashion show on the Whitney Museum, 15 looks will likely be shown in a presentation.

Last yr, Kate Spade did the Yr of Celebrations, and this yr is The Yr of Adventure. “The concept of the autumn collection is a day on the museum. It’s very daring colours and powerful graphics. We now have a collaboration with [the late] Alexander Girard. You’ll see ready-to-wear, footwear, handbags….Tom’s sense of color and styling is absolutely special,” Fraser said.

Mora spent 14 years at J.Crew, rising to senior vp of ladies’s design and was Jenna Lyons’ right hand. He left in 2015 and have become creative director women’s and licensed products at Cole Haan.

Lyu’s background includes roles as vp of purses and small leather goods at Tory Burch, vp of accessories and footwear at 3.1 Phillip Lim, and senior designer of ladies’s accessories at Prada.

Fraser said the brand is trying to go a bit bit younger and more casual and is working on sweatshirts and sweatpants. “It’s coming, it’s not on this collection,” she said.

One other brilliant spot at the corporate is the web business, which Fraser said did “amazing” in the course of the pandemic, because it did with many brands. “Kate has been a frontrunner in digital penetration for years. That’s since the brand does have a powerful, young customer base and early adopters who’re shopping online,” she said. Online has stayed strong “but within the last six months we’ve seen customers returning to stores in droves.”

Kate Spade does 80 percent of its business in North America. Of the remaining 20 percent, she said, they’ve a powerful business in Japan, “a burgeoning business in Southeast Asia,” and “Greater China is an area that we’re very focused on as well.”

On a world basis, one-third of sales are digital, 57 percent are derived from their very own retail stores and 10 percent are from wholesale.

Their wholesale business in North America, which Fraser said is a small a part of the business, is completed through stores equivalent to Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue. “I’m really completely satisfied with a few of it. The pandemic has made it hard to get well,” she said. “Our primary focus is d-to-c. We love d-to-c is because we would like to know our customer and d-to-c is the very best approach to try this.

She said Macy’s Herald Square just opened a shop-in-shop for Kate Spade handbags on the primary floor, and a shoe shop-in-shop on the second floor.

Asked which handbag brands she considers Kate Spade’s biggest competition, she cited Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Marc Jacobs and Coach.

Immediately there are stores within the U.K., including Scotland and Ireland, and so they just began opening stores in Germany. “We predict Europe has a number of potential for us. We now have high brand awareness on condition that we don’t have that many stores,” she said. In the primary half of 2023, the corporate expects that 12 stores will either open or undergo a renovation to align with the brand new store design concept.

For the primary quarter ended Oct. 1, Kate Spade sales increased 10 percent overall to $322 million, with a 7 percent increase in North America and 23 percent growth in international markets. Handbags, especially the Knott collection and the Katy, “outperformed expectations” together with latest shapes equivalent to the Boxxy — which was particularly popular with younger customers, and the Lady Leopard Tote, which retails for greater than $400, as reported.

Situated within the accessible luxury range, Kate Spade’s handbags range from $200 for small crossbodies to greater than $500 for elevated pieces. The sweet spot is between $300 and $350, she said.

When Fraser assumed the CEO role, she made just a few changes, but didn’t shake up the place. “I believe it’s really necessary to have a mixture. You mostly wish to have a dynamic organization. A part of that dynamism needs to be people who find themselves rooted within the heritage in addition to latest ideas and latest people,” she said.

Fraser brought in Jenny Campbell, chief marketing officer, in November 2020, who got here from Tinder and before that was at Nike. “She has this sense of find out how to construct community digitally, which I assumed was really interesting and what I assumed can be really powerful for Kate, because Kate is a community brand,” she said.

“We wish to create a passionate group of highly engaged customers who’re engaged with us and engaged with one another. That’s our perfect nirvana,” she said.