They All Came to Barneys: A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Store

Pressman (Chasing Cool), former creative director of New York City department store Barneys and the grandson of its founder, traces the retailer’s rise and fall in this mostly self-aggrandizing account. In 1923, Barney Pressman pawned his wife’s engagement ring to open a menswear store in downtown Manhattan, where he sold deeply discounted suits purchased from retailers at the season’s end—a formula that fueled the store’s expansion and catapulted the family into wealth. Barney’s son Fred took over in the late 1960s, shifting the store’s focus to upscale goods sourced from European designers; later, the author assumed control along with his brother Bob Pressman. The two added women’s clothes to their inventory and financed new stores in the U.S. and abroad. Yet mounting expenditures and distrust between the brothers led to the company’s 1996 bankruptcy; by 1998, both Pressmans had stepped down, Barney and Fred were dead, and the family had lost most of its stake in the company. Despite some vivid glimpses inside the New York City fashion world, the narrative loses its luster as the author’s defensiveness takes over (“Where everything has now been democratized to the point of being a fucking bore, Barneys had a point of view”). He can also be dismissive, as in his response to complaints about the store’s elitism: “We weren’t elitist. We were elite. That’s a big difference.” There’s potential for an engrossing story here, but Pressman stumbles in his desire to set the record straight. (Sept.)