I was raised to do the right thing, not just say the right thing. The day Kate Spade died I reminded those I was raised with, my brothers and sisters, through an email of exactly that:
“Kate Spade, legendary fashion designer, was found dead by suicide today and all people are doing is talking. It is not enough after tragedy to honor and commemorate; tragedy is only legitimate if something is done to prevent tragedy further. Suicide is a crime, it was done to her, and tonight her family doesn’t need prayers they need a promise that says NO MORE. Not one more life will be taken like their daughter’s; each thought, each tribute needs to become pence toward the cure we promise for mental illness.”
Right now you are thinking, “Isn’t this a fashion blog?” It is. But if I’m going to write this, I’m going to have to be candid, and you wouldn’t know me at all, if I didn’t talk about mental illness. Kate Spade didn’t just design totes she carried them. Totes, bags full of anxiety and despair and hopelessness. She carried sadness and desperation on that pretty little back up Park Avenue in high heels and a chic skirt. She toted sorrow and agitation, restlessness and guilt all around her store on Madison Avenue. She went home and she was burdened as a wife and a mother with her fatal sickness. It’s our job to make sure that the feelings we carry are talked about and not just toted around in cute little handbags. Welcome to Style Mag Daily, where we don’t just wear clothes, we wear our authentic selves.
“Is saying ‘Not one more life’ going a little too far? Maybe. But just as we were raised to do the right thing, we were not raised to dream ordinary dreams. The goals we set for ourselves must be higher than what we can expect, or we can never become greater than what we can perceive. As you go out and have these conversations, I