Research Catalog

The rise and fall of the house of Barneys : a family tale of chutzpah, glory, and greed

Title: The rise and fall of the house of Barneys : a family tale of chutzpah, glory, and greed / Joshua Levine.
Author: Levine, Joshua.
Publication: New York : William Morrow, [1999], ©1999.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	HD9940.U6 B375 1999	Off-site

Description

256 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

It took three generations to build Barneys into the world's most fabulous clothing store - and less than a decade to tear it down. This book is at once a family saga, a cautionary business tale, and a superbly detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how a secondhand store founded on pluck and chutzpah grew into a glittering international retail empire, only to founder on greed and hubris.
Patriarch Barney Pressman started small in 1923, but within two decades he was selling more suits than anyone in the world. By the time his son, Fred, took over in the 1960s, Barneys was a thriving institution, and Boys Town at Barneys was the site of every New York boy's clothing rite of passage. But Fred had loftier ambitions; he was never comfortable with the crass discounter image.
He staked the family fortune on European fabrics and design, wound up transforming the entire world of men's fashion, and made a killing along the way. But it was Fred's sons, Gene and Bob, who really wanted it all - not just a store but a grandiose temple of ultimate chic. Instead, through extravagance, flamboyance, greed, and an arrogant disregard for sound business principles, they raced heedlessly into one of the most spectacular business flameouts in retail history.

Subjects

Note

ISBN

0688155022

LCCN

98051429

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries