Fashion accessories brand Kate Spade New York has named L'Oréal veteran Allison Badea as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Badea most recently served as SVP of Global Brand Experience at Maybelline New York, with earlier stints at luxury beauty brands including Kiehl's and Giorgio Armani Beauty US.
The hire comes as Kate Spade faces both a sales slump and a longer-term rebuilding effort. The brand is framing its direction around "reviving the magic of Kate Spade New York" as it looks for a foothold to turn things around.
The performance gap is stark. Kate Spade's third-quarter revenue fell roughly 10% year-over-year to $220 million. Meanwhile, sibling brand Coach — under the same parent, Tapestry — grew 31% year-over-year to $1.7 billion in revenue. Tapestry as a whole posted double-digit revenue growth and net income up roughly 70% to $343.8 million. Inside a strong-performing group, Kate Spade is the clear laggard.
Badea is leading with emotional brand messaging. "Kate Spade New York has always understood that joy isn't a luxury — it's fundamentally human," she said, emphasizing her intent to reconnect with consumers seeking optimism and connection. Badea will work alongside Eva Erdmann — another L'Oréal alum who moved from leading Urban Decay Cosmetics to become Kate Spade's President and CEO in 2024 — to lead the brand's rebuild.
The notable move here is placing a beauty-industry marketer at the head of a fashion accessories brand. Beauty as a category has particular strength in emotional storytelling, consumer experience design, and the emotional payoff of "affordable luxury." Kate Spade choosing joy and optimism as the emotional core of its turnaround reads as a deliberate strategic choice to differentiate through emotional value rather than function or price.
But emotional messaging alone rarely reverses a double-digit sales decline. With Coach growing sharply under the same roof on a clear brand identity, Kate Spade needs to connect "which emotion, to which consumer, at which touchpoint" to concrete product and channel strategy. Whether the leadership change converts into a sales rebound — and whether emotional branding actually drives purchase conversion — is the thing to watch next.
If your brand needs help translating emotional positioning into a concrete channel and content strategy, Best Partner's services can help, or get in touch.
Allison Badea, an L'Oréal veteran who most recently served as SVP of Global Brand Experience at Maybelline New York, with prior experience at Kiehl's and Giorgio Armani Beauty US.
Third-quarter revenue fell about 10% year-over-year to $220 million, in contrast to sibling brand Coach, which grew 31% to $1.7 billion under the same parent company, Tapestry.
An emotional branding approach centered on joy, optimism, and connection, led by new CMO Allison Badea alongside CEO Eva Erdmann, both L'Oréal alumni, aiming to revive what the brand calls its 'magic.'
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