Keith Girard
Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and Designer L’Wren Scott were fixtures on the celebrity scene. She was found dead today of an apparent suicide.
Scott, 49, exhibited no known outward signs that she was under the kind of stress that would drive her to take her own life and no note has been found yet, according to police.
The designer apparently sent one last text message to an aide, asking her to come by her New York City apartment this morning. But she did not give a reason.
The aide arrived 90 minutes later and found Scott lifeless with a scarf around her neck tied to a door handle. Police said there were no immediate signs of foul play and are investigating the death as a suicide.
Up until last month it seemed to be business as usual for the popular designer. In collaboration with makeup artist Bobbi Brown, she’d just launched a cosmetics line, the Bobbi Brown x L’Wren Scott Collection.
It was the latest addition to her fashion empire, launched in 2006 with a clothing collection. She built on her popularity with celebrities like Madonna to launch a shoe collection in 2009, a handbag line in 2011.
An eyeglass collection followed a year later and she launched a collaboration with Banana Republic in 2013, according to her Web site.
But there were also signs of trouble. She abruptly cancelled her London Fashion Week show this year because of reported “production delays,” according to published reports.
Scott was also reportedly more than $5 million in debt, and her businesses were hemorrhaging money, according to The New York Daily News.
Still she had plenty of options. She did not have a mortgage on her $5.6 million Chelsea apartment, according to The News, and could have tapped that for a line of equity to cover expenses. Or she could have turned to Jagger.
They had been a couple since 2001 and the sum is a drop in the bucket to the rock and roller, one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world. He is said to be worth more than $300 million.
Whether she turned to him for help is unknown at the moment.
Jagger is “shocked and devastated” by her death, according to his rep, as are a host of celebrities and fashionistas who knew her.
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