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Our guest on this episode is Gene Pressman, of the great retail family that made Barneys into a New York fashion institution that has become part of the city lore and that has left an indelible mark on fashion itself. Barneys was a trailblazer, a temple for true fashion cognoscenti. Gene’s new book, out September…
Back in 2014, in an Op-Ed for the Business of Fashion, I rang the alarm about fashion stores losing their edge as tastemakers. I was mainly looking at Barneys, the iconic New York department store, as one that was losing its cache with the fashion-forward customer by becoming too commoditized. Fast-forward to 2019 and Barneys is now exploring bankruptcy. Theories abound as to what went wrong with the store, and there is not one single reason for Barneys possible demise – there is the crazy rent hike on its flagship, increased competition online, changing consumer tastes. But out of all commentators Lauren Sherman, of BoF nailed a big one, “Instead of owning cool, Barneys began chasing it.”