Why Kate Spade Sales Surged After the Designer's Death

Updated June 8, 2018 12:16 p.m. ET

But on Wednesday, as news stories referencing her latest endeavor emerged, items began to sell out on FrancesValentine.com. The $195 Clementine Thong feather sandal sold out by that afternoon, as did the large dipped canvas bucket bag, $225; and the $375 medium June Hobo bag in all four colors from chocolate to berry. By Thursday morning, everything in the site’s “new arrivals” section had sold out.

Shoppers closely associate fashion designers with their labels and often become attached to their products. This can create phenomena much like the art market, where interest in an artist’s work may spike posthumously. After designer

Alexander McQueen

committed suicide in London in 2010, people sought out Mr. McQueen’s designs, from his most recent collection in stores to early work, often purchased in private sales, that had armpit stains and tears from use.

“There was a mad rush for McQueen,” recalls fashion-industry consultant

Robert Burke,

who says that people’s emotional connections to brands don’t die with the designer. “When

Yves Saint Laurent

died, there was an uptick in people wanting to buy YSL,” he says. “It speaks to the strength of fashion. It’s not just another consumer good.”

Fashion historian

Valerie Steele,

emailing from Japan, says that the law of supply and demand is at work. “Just as the value of artists’ work often goes up after their deaths, so does the value of some designers’ work—and for the same basic reason: There is no more work being produced so it will become more rare.”

Ms. Steele says that scandals don’t tend to have the same effect. If the alleged behavior was particularly heinous, she says, it can depress sales and prices.

After

John Galliano

was recorded making drunken anti-Semitic remarks in 2011, he was fired from his jobs designing

Christian Dior

as well as the eponymous John Galliano line. He avoided the public eye as the labels sought to distance themselves. Dior took nearly two years to name a new designer. (Mr. Galliano is currently creative director of Paris-based Maison Margiela.)

Shoe designer

Steve Madden

was incarcerated in 2002 for stock manipulation and securities fraud. But there was no long-term punishment: The company has grown robustly since his 2005 release and return. (Its net income grew 11% to $557.4 million in 2017, up from $502.6 million the year earlier.)

When a beloved designer dies, though, brand recovery often involves a period of mourning. The grieving for Mr. McQueen involved a funereal presentation of his unfinished final collection in Paris–at which a number of guests openly wept. Many in the industry assumed the brand would cease to exist without its founder, Mr. Burke recalls. But after a four-month pause, Mr. McQueen’s longtime assistant Sarah Burton was named his successor. Though it lacks Mr. McQueen’s highly dramatic productions, the brand is a stalwart for its luxury parent company Kering, and a highlight of Paris fashion week.

Fashion’s emotional connections can last for decades and pass to younger generations. Versace is celebrating a revival of interest in the house’s designs as well as in its late founder

Gianni Versace.

In its ads, on runways and in fashion pages, the label has brought back supermodels such as

Cindy Crawford

to pose in designs based on early iconic looks of its heyday. This revival has come around the same time as the FX television series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” which has revived memories of Mr. Versace’s gruesome 1997 murder in Miami.

The Kate Spade brand, sold several times since 2006 and purchased in 2017 by Tapestry, owner of Coach and Stuart Weitzman, has been paying tribute to the late designer. Dropping recent cheery references to its 25th anniversary, the label has posted stark white-on-black background notices on its website, stores and

Twitter

feed: “Kate Spade, the visionary founder of our brand, has passed. Our thoughts are with her family at this incredibly heartbreaking time. We honor all the beauty she brought into this world.”

“The outpouring of love on social media and in our shops from customers of all ages has been overwhelming and moving,” said

Anna Bakst,

CEO and president of Kate Spade New York, in an email.

A note Thursday on the Frances Valentine website announced: “Due to very high traffic volume we are experiencing technical difficulties on our site. We are working to correct this as soon as possible. Please check back for inventory updates on out of stock items. Thank you for understanding.”

Write to Christina Binkley at christina.binkley@wsj.com