KATE SPADE SATURDAY AND JACK SPADE TO SHUT DOWN ALL STORES

After just two years on the market, Kate Spade Saturday — Kate Spade’s lower-priced, more casual offshoot — is closing all 19 of its stores. Jack Spade, Kate Spade & Company’s 22-year-old menswear brand, is also shuttering all 12 of its stores. Stores will close gradually over the first half of 2015, and Kate Spade Saturday’s e-commerce site will remain active during that time.

In a statement, the company said that “key elements of Kate Spade Saturday’s success” will be incorporated into the main Kate Spade line, and that Jack Spade will pursue “a new business model… to leverage the distribution network of its retail partners and expand its e-commerce platform.”

The Kate Spade Saturday news is a surprise, given that the label was opening stores as late as the fourth quarter of last year. But in recent quarters, the company noted that Kate Spade Saturday’s weak sales and heavy promotionswere hurting the company’s margins — and its stock price, which investors couldn’t have been happy about.

Still, we’re sad to see Kate Spade Saturday go — it’s a brand that stands for fun, and certainly one of the innovators in the retail marketing landscape. A spokesperson for the brand tells us that the Saturday label won’t disappear entirely however, and will pop up at Kate Spade New York stores (and its e-commerce site) in the future.