downtown, as the retailer’s lore goes, it sold only men’s apparel, at a discount.
It was Barney Pressman’s son, Fred Pressman, who in the 1960s flipped the retailer to selling luxury instead, with the help of his friends Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Cardin, making Barneys a destination for European men’s fashion. (Fred Pressman also took away the apostrophe in the name.)
It wouldn’t be until the 1970s, when the next generation of Pressmans expanded merchandise to include women’s apparel and home goods, that Barneys had enough departments to call itself a department store.
Read more about how Barney’s New York lost its cool on the Retail Dive website HERE
