Kathleen Kirkwood, a fashion entrepreneur known as “the diva of shoulder pads,” a past chairwoman of East Hampton Town’s litter and recycling advisory committee, and a member of the Montauk Historical Society, died on Nov. 5 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, The Star has learned. The cause of death remains unknown. Ms. Kirkwood, who lived in Montauk and Manhattan, had fallen ill and been hospitalized two months earlier. She was 62.
In 1982 — the era of the padded shoulder — Ms. Kirkwood invented the clip-on shoulder pad by removing them from clothing and affixing them to bra straps with Velcro. Quickly, friends asked for them, and the following year, Bloomingdale’s ordered the first of her Pints of Pads, which came in a container that resembled a pint of ice cream. Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom followed, and the invention soon went international.
“Oprah called me,” Ms. Kirkwood told The Star in 2019. After appearing on Ms. Winfrey’s program as well as on CNBC and CNN, in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and in Forbes and Fortune magazines, the QVC home shopping network offered a venue for her products.
On an overseas trip, she witnessed a shipment of bras to Victoria’s Secret from the Chinese factory. It took 16 hours, she said, for a month’s supply to be loaded into a caravan of tractor-trailers. “They let me know that they ship about 14 million bras a month,” she said. The experience spurred an epiphany: bras, comprising polyurethane foam, polyesters, nylons, and metal, should not end up decomposing for centuries in a landfill, or emitting toxic gases when incinerated. Rather, bras, some 500 million of which are sold in the United States annually, should be recycled.
In 2010, she founded the Bra Recycling Agency, or B.R.A., which enables people to send old bras to a recycling plant, where they are shredded and pulverized and then processed into carpet padding. A portion of profits was allocated to breast cancer research.
“She was always doing something so big,” said her sister, Joann Scully of Long Beach, that it was difficult for others to keep up with her.
Kathleen Kirkwood was born on April 20, 1959, in the Laurelton neighborhood of Queens to Gerard P. Kirkwood and the former Katherine Noke. She grew up in Valley Stream and attended Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale, N.Y.
She became a model at 19, she told The Star, but shortly after signing with the Ford agency was hit by a car. She suffered no permanent injuries, but her contract was canceled. “I was wearing beautiful clothing,” she said. “Even though I lost my job, so to speak, I still wanted to wear that clothing, so I figured out a way to hack the system.” So began her career in fashion, which would incorporate concern for sustainability and the environment.
In addition to her sister, she is survived by her mother, who lives in Manhattan. Ms. Kirkwood was cremated. A memorial service was held via video conference.
