(Los Angeles Times)
The death of Kate Spade has renewed discussions of mental health awareness, with celebrities mourning the fashion designer’s death with missives about depression and suicide prevention.
Spade, whose colorful handbags, bold prints and cheerful sayings once dominated American fashion, was found dead on Tuesday in her New York apartment in an apparent suicide, according to the Associated Press.
The late designer was no longer involved with the Kate Spade label, but the brand, which is now owned by Coach’s parent company Tapestry, confirmed her death on Twitter Tuesday afternoon, saying that the “visionary founder of our brand has passed” and honored “all the beauty she brought into this world.”
Though no official reports said that Spade suffered from mental illness, Twitter users quickly jumped in the fray to says that depression “does not discriminate” and is a “life-threatening illness, just like heart disease, cancer, or sepsis.”
“There should be no stigma about mental health-only treatment, awareness, and compassion,” tweetedsurgeon and columnist Eugene Gu.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and on average just under 45,000 Americans die by suicide.