New since 2004. Kate spade bags made in indonesia should look like the tag pictured above kate spade has also manufactured bags in the dominican republic. I do not have a photo of the tag at this time. This is part 1 of a 4 part guide.
Editor’s Note: The following essay contains information about a suicide attempt and may be upsetting to some readers. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
When I read that Kate Spade killed herself, I wasn’t shocked. It’s not that I knew she was suicidal — I’ve never met her, nor have I read much about her. I don’t carry her handbags or wear her clothes. But I know there are a lot of depressed people in the world, people whose pain and hopelessness is so overwhelming that they long for death. Of course, Anthony Bourdain tragically ended his life days after Spade. These are people whose lives looks so happy from the outside that you’d never suspect they'd think at all about suicide, much less attempt it.
I was one of those people. Sometimes, in my worst moments, I still am.
I still have scars from the first time I tried to end my life. They're on both wrists, thin but deep enough that if I run my fingers over the fragile skin I can feel the lines from the blade, forever raised like goosebumps. I was 21 then, filled with a loneliness pervasive enough that I might as well have been drifting in outer space.
The solution seemed simple: Break into the plastic around the little pink razor sitting on my tub to get at the sharp metal inside.
Three decades have passed since then, but I still clearly remember my mounting desperation, the sounds I was making, more keening than crying. What I was doing to myself physically hurt. It was terrifying. Just because I couldn't endure my life anymore didn't mean I wasn't afraid to die. But it still took me a very long time to concede defeat.
.
I didn’t get treatment back then, instead hiding the bandaged wounds under sweater sleeves even though it was summer. It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that what I’d come to learn was manic behavior became so extreme that I began seeing a therapist and psychiatrist. I was diagnosed as bipolar and with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Studies have shown that about 50% of people with bipolar disorder attempt suicide. And those with BPD are 50 times more likely than the general population to do it.
Betsy Farrell
Since my diagnosis, I’ve been in and out of treatment. I’ve been committed to a psychiatric hospital for 10 days. I’ve taken an overdose of my meds and spent time in the ER, drinking something foul made of charcoal to save my life. But for the last fifteen years or so, I’ve found stability, even weathered the the loss of my younger brother from a heroin overdose and my mother’s mind to dementia without trying to kill myself. I see a therapist weekly and take a small dose of an antidepressant.
But I still get side-swiped by dark moments. I sometimes feel like I did that night three decades ago when I sat on the edge of my tub, watching my blood drip onto the porcelain. The despair can amount to the emotional equivalent of what I imagine burning to death must feel like physically. Truth is, I think I carry a little bit of death around with me. It squats in a corner of my soul, just waiting for the instant when I’m not as strong as I usually am, when it can take me. I think many people who have strongly considered suicide might tell you the same thing.
And yet, I fight. I fight those times when I feel isolated and lost and absolutely without hope. I use the tools I’ve learned to combat this anguish. I call my friends. I go for a walk, I even work out if I can summon the energy. I’m a writer, so I often write about it. I think that helps the most. Mostly I just bear down, leaning into the pain, telling myself it will pass. So far, it always does.
The thing about depression, or really any kind of mental illness, is that it can’t be stopped with power or fame or beauty or good times or hard work or really even love. Kate Spade taught us that, and now Anthony Bourdain.
Treatment is the only real chance most people have at healing. But the continuing stigmatization of mental illness and a health care system that has barely made treating it a consideration, much less a priority, mean that many sick people never get help. They’re too afraid to admit that they need it, and even if they do they often can’t pay for it. Instead they die, or they kill, or sometimes they do both.
.
While we wait (and wait and wait) for programs and legislation to assist those who are suffering, there is something we can all do. We can understand that mental illness is much like any other illness — it’s not a choice, or a failing of character, and you can’t just “snap out of it.”
We need to stop demonizing the sick, to stop calling those who attempt suicide 'selfish.' Would you call a cancer patient selfish if their disease ended their life? Try to imagine how broken someone must be to believe death is a better alternative than life. We need to offer empathy, not judgment. And most of all, we need to pay attention. Listen to our loved ones. Try to make them feel heard and seen and not quite so alone. The sad truth is that some of us, like Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, can’t be saved. But we can try.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Jill Gleeson is memoirist and travel journalist who lives and works in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Find her at gleesonreboots.com.
THERE ARE SLIGHT VARIATIONS TO THE TAGS BELOW THAT ARE STILL KS AUTHENTIC. I CAN ONLY LIST 9 PICS PER GUIDE. SO I CHOSE TAGS THAT HAVE BEEN MORE POPULAR/CIRCULATED. EMAIL ME OR USE THE 'DISCUSSION BOARDS' UNDER PURSES FOR MORE EXPERT ADVICE.
1) COUNTRY OF ORIGIN TAG: Any bag after 1996 should have a country of origin tag. SEE BELOW PHOTOS
MANY BAGS BETWEEN 1996-2002 WERE MADE IN THE USA. IF THE BAG WAS MADE IN THE USA, THE LABEL ABOVE IS THE CLASSIC EXAMPLE.
ALL OF KATE'S LEATHER, SUEDE AND CALF BAGS WERE MADE IN ITALY(SEE ABOVE FOR EXAMPLES)
BETWEEN 1997-1999 KATE'S NYLON BAGS WERE MADE IN TAIWAN. THE LABEL ABOVE IS AN EXAMPLE
BAGS MADE IN CHINA SINCE 2002 MAY LOOK LIKE THE ABOVE EXAMPLES. THERE ARE VARIATIONS TO THESE
TAGS. EMAIL ME FOR MORE INFO.
MANY STRAW AND WICKER BAGS WERE MADE IN THE PHILIPPINES BEFORE AND AFTER 2002. THE TAG MAY LOOK LIKE THE PHOTO ABOVE
NEW SINCE 2004. KATE SPADE BAGS MADE IN INDONESIA SHOULD LOOK LIKE THE TAG PICTURED ABOVE
KATE SPADE HAS ALSO MANUFACTURED BAGS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. I DO NOT HAVE A PHOTO OF THE TAG AT THIS TIME