EW YORK -- Handbag designer Kate Spade rarely sees a movie more than once. But she did go twice to "The Royal Tenenbaums," the 2001 cult hit about an estranged family of child prodigies. Like many stylemakers, Spade couldn't get enough of the exhaustively detailed set decoration of the family townhouse -- the stuffed javelina boar's head, the rotary phones and the game closet.

She studied the costumes, too. "I loved Bill Murray's corduroy suit and Gwyneth Paltrow's fur coat. The whole sensibility of the film wasn't casual, but it was easy," said the former Mademoiselle editor, who in less than a decade parlayed a similar aesthetic into a $70 million-a-year accessories empire.

Her Tenenbaums fascination didn't end at the movie theater. A zebra tote in Spade's new spring line was inspired by the red running-zebra pattern wallpaper in the room of Margot Tenenbaum, played by Paltrow. Spade hired the film's costume designer, Karen Patch, to create a quirky, old-money look for the Lawrences, a fictional family of five featured in Spade's fall ad campaign.

It's easy to see why Wes Anderson's "Tenenbaums" resonated with Kate Spade. At her airy 25th Street showroom, boxy bags and preppy, round-toed shoes sit on shelves next to classic titles such as The Journal of John Cheever and Poems of e.e. cummings. The dusty old tomes, collected from flea markets, used-books shops and the Internet, give a sense of history and place to Spade's fun, feminine accessories.

The petite, 39-year-old, Audrey Hepburn-like designer grew up far from the fashion world, in Kansas City, Mo. (Three clocks on the showroom wall with the times for Kansas City, New York and Paris serve as a reminder of her roots.) One of five children, Spade was the daughter of a housewife, and her father ran a construction business. Spade's first purse was a pink velvet frame bag, with a tiny chain handle, which came with a matching pink dress.

She met her husband, Andy (whose brother is actor David Spade), in college at Arizona State University, when they both worked at the same clothing store. The two moved to New York City after graduation; Andy went into advertising and Kate into fashion. She would eventually become the accessories editor at now-defunct Mademoiselle.

Unable to find any purses on the market that she wanted to carry, Spade used her 401(k) money to launch a small line of square-shaped totes in 1993. The night before introducing the line at a trade show, she made a snap decision to put the labels on the outside of the bags instead of the inside, which has become her signature.

Since then, Spade has won nearly every major accessory award and opened the door for a generation of handbag designers. Spade's business now includes stationery, shoes, pajamas, raincoats, eyewear and most recently, bath products and perfume. Produced through a licensing agreement with Estee Lauder, the new beauty line (prices range from $25 to $98) includes such potions as honeysuckle-scented cream and bath oil in packages lined with a flower print similar to that on the wallpaper in Spade's Southampton weekend cottage.

No imitations

Four years ago, Neiman Marcus paid more than $30 million for a 56 percent stake in Spade's company. She characterizes the relationship as "invisible." The retailer has no involvement in the creative process but has helped guide retail growth, according to Spade, who also has seven free-standing stores.

With Andy, who designs men's messenger bags and totes under the Jack Spade label, at work in a more masculine Spade showroom across the hall, and her cotton-puff white Maltese terrier, Henry, scurrying around at her feet, everything seems perfect in Kate's world.

Well, almost everything.

Outside, just a few blocks from her company headquarters, street vendors are hawking Kate Spade look-alike bags for $20, with a convincing version of her signature labels affixed squarely on the fronts. The fakes have so saturated the streets of New York, Los Angeles and other big cities that some fashion types have started to shy away from the brand.

"It's natural to be upset by it," Spade says. "But our focus has been on design."

"If someone wants the original, they're not going to settle for the second-best or the third-best," said Neiman Marcus fashion director Joan Kaner.

So what's next for the designer? Her spring collection (about $150 to $525) includes a boxy straw bag with leather handles and fold-over top flaps inspired by the tourist bags sold on the streets in Mexico, and a subtle yellow-and-brown striped fabric tote modeled after a swatch Spade picked up during one of her frequent flea-market excursions. There's also a tote emblazoned with black-and-white drawings by New Yorker illustrator Maira Kalman, and a modern, rectangular calfskin carryall with a hole cut out for a handle.