We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade

A moving portrait of friendship by Elyce Arons as she reflects on her long relationship with Kate Spade, whom she met in college and with whom she cofounded the multi-billion-dollar fashion company as they came of age in 1990s New York.

When Elyce Arons first met Katy Brosnahan in a University of Kansas dorm room, she had no idea that this polo shirt-wearing Missouri girl would not only become her best friend but also change the course of her life. Back then, Katy and Elyce were preoccupied with frat parties and The Mary Tyler Moore Show;within a decade, they’d be scraping by in New York City, working day jobs to spend nights building a new line of handbags that would one day revolutionize the accessories industry.

We Might Just Make It After All brings us on the rollercoaster of adventures (and misadventures) that the best friends embarked on, from transferring colleges on a whim, to falling in and out of love with suitors, cramming into roach-infested Hell’s Kitchen apartments, and eventually designing the chic, simple bag that would launch the pair to global fame. Through it all, Katy and Elyce’s friendship remained unshakeable. This powerful friendship lasted nearly forty years, until Katy’s tragic suicide in 2018. We Might Just Make It After All celebrates her legacy as a cultural icon and loyal friend.

Set against the glitzy and gritty backdrop of downtown New York at the turn of the century, We Might Just Make It After All lovingly and candidly explores the power of a friendship as close as sisterhood, the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the 1990s, and the timeless elegance of a generation-defining brand.

Elyce Arons is the cofounder of Kate Spade and cofounder and CEO of Frances Valentine. Arons began her career in publicity and marketing before starting the multi-billion-dollar bag company Kate Spade alongside Katy, Katy’s husband, Andy, and Pamela Bell out of a downtown New York City apartment. Arons lives in New York with her husband and three daughters.