Kathryn Marie Gallagher, a fashion designer who has worn Lady Gaga, actress Laverne Cox and dancers with the New York City Ballet, is working on her 27th collection this summer. last. A few weeks before she died suddenly, she posts pictures of translucent clothes that reflect her Gothic aesthetic and her fondness for dark colors.
“I’ve always liked that I can’t give anything away too soon because it’s so black,” she wrote on Facebook last May.
On July 24, less than a month before her 36th birthday, police answered a 911 call and found Ms Gallagher lying unconscious in bed in her Lower East Side apartment. There were no obvious signs of trauma and she was pronounced dead at the scene. On Friday, police declared her death a homicide after a coroner concluded she died of acute intoxication caused by a mixture of fentanyl, p-pluorofentanyl and ethanol.
“There have been no arrests and the investigation is still ongoing,” police said in a statement.
Detectives are looking into whether Ms Gallagher was intentionally given a dangerous mixture of drugs by someone, according to several officials briefed on the investigation.
Similar cases have emerged over the past year when victims were robbed after they died of a drug overdose.
In December, Alvin L. Bragg Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, announced the indictment of a man, Kenwood Allen, of murder, robbery, and other counts of drug assaults. same on the Lower East Side after five were robbed and two were killed.
This month, the drug overdoses of Julio Ramirez and John Umberger, who died and were robbed after leaving a Manhattan bar last year, was found guilty of murder by the New York City medical examiner’s office.
In a statement Friday, Ms. Gallagher’s family said they were working with police, the medical examiner and the Manhattan district attorney’s office to “get answers about Katie’s sudden death.”
The family said: “The murder decision shared by the medical examiner today confirms what we know: Katie was the victim of a crime. “Sharing this news helps us profess candidly, demand accountability, and express our grief more openly.”
The statement said the family would be grateful for “any development” that would “bring greater awareness of fentanyl and similar drugs being used as weapons against innocent people.”
Ms Gallagher’s death stunned her friends and colleagues in the city’s fashion community, where she was admired for not straying from sight and not liking trends.
Balarama Heller, a photographer who met Ms Gallagher around 2010, said: “It is very disturbing and appalling that someone from our creative community will be targeted in this way. Israel Veintidos, photographing her collection — black clothes on a black background — finally appeared on the website of Vogue magazine.
On the night of filming, a snowstorm trapped the trio in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. They took refuge in a bar and lingered until about 4 a.m. to talk.
Mr. Heller recalled how the heavy snow caused Ms. Gallagher to reminisce about her growing up in rural Pennsylvania, where she developed a love of nature and bleak forests that would later affect her work. hers.
He describes herself as someone who “had a vision of what she wanted to do in her life and came to New York City to make it happen,” he said. “As sophisticated, urban and stylish as she presents herself, she has very rugged roots and is an extremely tough, weathered person.”
Maayan Zilberman, an artist in Manhattan who met Gallagher when they were both just starting out in the fashion industry, said she is quiet, reserved and creative, often drawing her ideas first and then later. hand-made clothes.
One year, two women were doing a show where models would wear “crazy nail clippers,” said Ms. Zilberman, and asked Ms. Gallagher if she wanted to.
“We both looked down at her fingernails and burst out laughing because her nails were ripped off,” she said. Ms. Zilberman said she attributed the damage to Gallagher’s Maine coon cat, Sveater.
But the real cuts are from her constantly sewing on her industrial machine.
She is very dedicated to her art form, Ms. Zilberman said. “We have all been impressed by her dedication to creating intricate pieces with meters of zippers, leather, all sorts of difficult materials, all by hand.”
Ms. Gallagher’s family, which includes her two parents and three older sisters, has been trying to raise money to help set up a foundation in her name to support other artists.
In their statement, they said: “As we think about the callous disregard for her life and all that she did or could have done if this hadn’t happened, our hearts melt. shattered”.
