It’s not a good time to be a fashion designer right now.

The body of famed handbag and clothing designer Kate Spade was found in her New York home by her housekeeper on Tuesday. She had hung herself by a scarf that she had allegedly tied to a doorknob while her husband Andy was in another room.

As if that isn’t tragic enough, Spade had also left behind a suicide note addressed to her daughter which read: “Bea – I have always loved you. This is not your fault. Ask Daddy!”

Absolutely gut-wrenching.

Her suicide could possibly be attributed to low sales for her handbag and clothing lines this year. Same-store sales for Kate Spade creations reportedly plunged by 9% in the first quarter due to the staggering drop in online revenue, reports CNN.

The thing is, this is not the first time that a designer has committed suicide by hanging. Since 2010, two other high-profile designers have killed themselves in a similar way.

Alexander McQueen, AKA “enfant terrible” and “the hooligan of English fashion”, shocked the world when he took his life in 2010:

[McQueen] hanged himself in the wardrobe of his London apartment and left a suicide note in February 2010. Officials later ruled the cause of the 40-year-old fashion designer’s death as asphyxia and hanging. Officials didn’t disclose what the note said.

McQueen, who had dressed stars from Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman to Rihanna and Sandra Bullock, killed himself nine days after the death of his mother. He expressed his devastation at her death on his Twitter account days before he died.

It was a devastating loss for sure, but it wasn’t long before the fashion industry lost another icon.

L’Wren Scott was turning heads as a model before switching over to clothing design in the 90s, but the life of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend suddenly came to an abrupt end:

[Scott] was found dead in her New York apartment in March 2014, hanging from a door knob with a scarf around her neck. She was 49 when she died and officials ruled the death a suicide.

The lanky former model designed clothes worn by a number of celebrities, including Madonna. She had been singer Mick Jagger’s companion for more than a decade, and created many of Jagger’s looks for the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary tour.

Scott’s suicide is pretty much identical to the way Spade took her own life on Tuesday.

Very disturbing.

It’s sad to see creative individuals like Spade, McQueen and Scott lose their spark early on, for reasons known – like in McQueen’s case – or still to be discovered, such as with Spade.

We only hope that they’ll be remembered for the epic designs they pumped out while they were alive, and not for the way they died.

RIP.

[source:yahoolifestyle&cnn]