Kate Spade Has a New Creative Director

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It’s a new day at Kate Spade. Or it will be on August 26 when Scottish designer Jonathan Saunders takes over as executive creative director overseeing product design and brand visual identity at the brand.

Jonathan Saunders (Courtesy of Kate Spade)

Saunders previously worked at Calvin Klein and Alexander McQueen and did an 18-month stint as creative director at Diane von Furstenberg from May 2016 to December 2017.

Saunders also ran his own eponymous brand from 2003 to 2015, shutting it down just six months before moving to New York to take over at DVF.

In his new role, Saunders will report to  Kate Spade CEO Eva Erdmann who joined the brand in 2024.

“We’re on a journey to really reignite the magic of this iconic brand for a new generation of consumers,” Erdmann said in an interview with WWD on Tuesday. “Kate Spade has this fantastic heritage, this incredible awareness, and our opportunity is to turn that awareness into real desire.”

“With [Saunders], our focus will be really on sharpening even more the creative vision of the brand to make our products really unmistakable,” said Erdmann. “It’s going to be really about building this relationship and the authentic emotional connection with the consumer by understanding her.”

“The brand has a genuine point of view, rich brand codes steeped in its 30-year history and infinite potential,” Saunders told WWD. “I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the brand heritage and connecting that soul with today’s consumers. I’m thrilled to join the team that’s shaping Kate Spade’s joyful future.”

Given Saunders’s aesthetic and history, this could just be a match made in heaven. Don’t you think?