The Shophound

RETAIL REVOLVING DOOR: Barneys Loses A Fashion Director

One key member of the highly touted new regime at Barneys New York has flown the coop. Vice president and fashion director Amanda Brooks has left the store and will be relocating with her family to England, leaving a plum fashion position in New York unexpectedly available without a successor immediately in place. The development is particularly significant as the store has been under pressure to bolster its women's business and create a fashion image with greater appeal to its branch store customers beyond New York. One might not be wrong to look for a potential game of musical fashion directors to take place in the coming months.

Amanda Brooks Resigns Post at Barneys New York (WWD)

WAREHOUSE WRAP-UP: How To Fix Barney's Warehouse Sale —Because It's Totally Busted

The Barneys New York Warehouse Sale ended yesterday, one extended week after it had originally been scheduled to, and the overall response, as surveyed not only by The Shophound, but other blogs that follow such things like Racked and Sample Sally to name a few, was pretty tepid. In fact, this was the first season in a while when The Shophound could not find a single thing we felt compelled to buy, even when the final, final markdowns were posted. Though there was reportedly an early morning line to get in on opening day, we breezed in around noon that day to find a light crowd at best, and minimal if any checkout lines. Even on the last weekend of the sale, when merchandise was at its most reduced prices, we were surprised not to see the long lines of shoppers with armloads of goods at the checkout that we used to count on. What had only a few years ago been a bonanza finale to the clearance season that eager shoppers would call in sick from work and line up at the crack of dawn for was now greeted with a collective shrug from a city full of the savviest bargain hunters in America. At times we had heard reports that Barneys' more recently installed management was looking to phase out the downmarket Warehouse Sale entirely, and was deliberately toning it down, but such news was refuted, and the sale continues to be held, though it is now a wan, thinly stocked version of its former self.

This year the sale was just plain sloppy and halfhearted. In past seasons, management has toyed with a failed reconfiguration of the familiar set-up in Chelsea's Co-op store, and more recently tried to downsize the schedule by a week, which was thwarted by a hurricane the first time, and just plain extended this season. Even in it's somewhat diminished state, the Sale resists attempts to be changed, but here are a few ways that it could be improved and returned to being the kind of un-missable shopping event and big moneymaker it once was.

After the jump, The Shophound suggests six ways to make the sale a better, more successful experience for all involved

WAREHOUSE WATCH: Another Markdown Hit Barneys Warehouse Sale Today

We stopped by Barneys Warehouse Sale at about noon today just as the staff was posting new price reductions. We tweeted this earlier, but click the better image above to embiggen the photo, and you'll see 50% off marked prices for most women's things and 60% off most men's sportswear. We are predicting one more round of markdowns on Saturday or possibly Sunday, but if there's something you know you want, now's the time to go. Make of this information what you will.

Barneys Warehouse Sale ends Sunday at 225 West 17th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, Chelsea

WAREHOUSE REPORT: The Latest Markdowns From Barneys Warehouse Sale

The Shophound was about to run down to Chelsea to see if the the Barneys Warehouse Sale had added any additional reductions, but the folks at Racked have relieved us of that tedious duty by publishing today's new markdowns. Now is when it's really worth it to start shopping.

The list notes additional 40% markdowns on Women's Shoes, Sportswear, Designer and Chelsea Passage among other things as well as Men's Sportswear, Outerwear, Denim and Ties along with at least 25% off most other categories. This is when the markdowns go really deep, so have at it, Bargain Hunters! Additional markdowns will probably happen before the weekend with final reductions on Saturday or Sunday, the last day.

UPDATE: Here's a new photo that will be easier to read. One unusual change we noticed is that men's "Designer" collections have been separated out for a lesser discount. When we stopped by this mostly consisted of a ton of Thom Browne shirts with blue star stamped price tags that are currently only 25% off the marked price... for now.

The Barneys Warehouse Sale Takes More Markdowns (RACKED)
Previously:
Barneys Adds A Week To The Warehouse Sale

WAREHOUSE UPDATE: Barneys Adds A Week To The Warehouse Sale

In case you were planning on hitting the Barneys Warehouse Sale early this Sunday to grab those last-day-price-slash bargains, you may want to cool your heels a bit since our friends at RACKED have announced that the sale has been extended for another week until March 4th.

We have to chuckle a bit at this, because when Barneys decided last Fall to shorten the sale by a week, they wound up extending it for several days anyway since they lost the precious last weekend to Hurricane Irene. Now, they have basically returned the sale to its original two week schedule, as if the sale itself has taken on its own persona and resisted any attempts to be downsized by more recent arrivals to Barney's management.

Anyway... the extension is probably why, when we stopped by the sale yesterday for our periodic price check, expecting an additional round of markdowns, we saw that the discount list (pictured above —click for a larger view) had remained unchanged since Monday. right now, there is about 25% off women's shoes and sportswear, and men's sportswear, trousers and outerwear. Also, the men's same has been reconfigured to make better use of space and get some (but not all) of those sweaters off the hangers. As always, beware of people using the racks as an impromptu changing room.

We agree with Racked that the racks seemed surprisingly robust for a sale supposedly extending into its final days, so we wouldn't be surprised if some of the leftovers from the West Coast sale are being added to the stock for one more week of blowout.

As always, we will keep you apprised of further reductions, so stay tuned...

Barneys Warehouse Sale Extended To Sunday, March 4th (Racked)

WAREHOUSE REPORT: It's Time To Adjust Our Expectations Regarding The Barneys Warehouse Sale

What you are looking at above is a big rack of cargo pants currently in the Men's section of the Barneys New York Warehouse Sale. Normally, one would find a huge table full of sweaters that customers would be tossing all over the place sitting in front of this rack, but instead, there is an empty expanse of floor. The sweaters are on the other side of the room —on hangers (!!!)— which any decent shopkeeper knows is an excellent way to ruin knitwear. On the plus side, there is much more room for the throngs of shoppers to move around, but we easily slipped in and out of the sale on its opening day, yesterday, so there actually were no afternoon crowds. What we had come to expect would be a bonanza overflowing with discounted designer clothes has become a much sparser, shorter clearance event for the season, and, it seems clear, a few preceding seasons as well, along with more than a little bit of off-price goods added in to fill the racks. This sale seems sparser and less well organized than ever before.
Folks, the sale's glory days are long gone. Get used to it.

In going through the men's section, the lack of merchandise was glaring, and though there are one or two Pairs of pants from Mason's, Woolrich and Gant by Michael Bastian in the rack pictured, most of the rest appear to be off-price or outlet goods that Barneys is trying to move. Here's a fun hint: If there is a strange abundance of a particular item, you can bet that it has been brought in just for the sale as opposed to coming from Barneys full line stores. Sometimes that's good. We saw a ton of Thom Browne shirts among the racks that we never saw hanging in Barneys regular in-store sale, which is great, and maybe some of them will be left when prices really get slashed on the final days. Unfortunately, they were also shoved into the racks with no regard to size, so buying one at 70% off will be your reward for finding the right size somewhere in the packed racks of shirts. There was also an abundance of previous season Gant Rugger shirts, including many form the last Warehouse Sale, so, again theses will be totally worth it when the get reduced again.

Of course, we also saw a ridiculous amount of merchandise with ripped tags showing no price, or intact ones that had never been properly marked down with red pen to begin with. This is just sloppy, and, frankly, in this day and age, Barney's hand-marked sale ticket system is generally, embarrassingly archaic.

The Men's accessory and scarf bins were similarly diminished along with shoes which are inexplicably crammed in a corner leaving another huge expanse of space that could be better used to make shopping easier. We don't even know what to tell you about the sad collection of neckties hanging on their usual holders by the abundant-as-usual of off-price private label dress shirts. Most of them should just be packed up and sold by the pound to jobbers to get them out of circulation.

As for the women's sections, our friends at Racked have a detailed report, and basically found the offerings similarly disappointing. So overall, this Warehouse Sale is nothing to get excited about. Of course, if you need some suits or dress shirts for work, it can still be a great resource, and if you posses an inveterate hunter-gatherer instinct when it comes to shopping (and The Shophound might know a little something about that) there are bound to be prizes to be found. We will try to keep up with next week's inevitable, reductions, and maybe more merchandise might be brought from whatever is left after the Los Angeles Warehouse sale ends on Monday (which doesn't even sound like a promising prospect), but we warn you to keep your expectations in check

Barneys New York Warehouse Sale runs through Sunday, February 26th at 255 West 17th Street between Seventh & Eighth Avenues, Chelsea
The Barneys Womenswear Sale Is a Bit Of A Let-Down (Racked)

WAREHOUSE ALERT: Barneys Warehouse Sale Dates Set For New York

Our friends at Racked have ascertained that the next Barneys Warehouse Sale will take begin on February 16th and run through the 26th. As usual, the Chelsea Co-op will close on the preceding weekend to prepare for the event. Much like last February's installment, the sale begins as Fashion Week winds down, and like last September's, it is only scheduled for about 11 days. Of course, the last time, it was extended for a few extra days due to the Hurricane, so perhaps we can hope for a blizzard to give us a little more time at the new, short version of the Warehouse sale. The difference this time is that the New York sale will now overlap with the L.A. sale which reportedly runs from February 10-21. How this will affect the selection and quality of merchandise available for us New Yorkers, who are obviously the most important shoppers in the world and entitled to the optimum selection of goods to choose from, remains to be seen, but we will consider it another upcoming chapter in the story of a rapidly changing Barneys.

The Next Barneys Warehouse Sale Will Begin February 16 (Racked)
Previously:
Barneys Sets Dates For 11-Day LA Warehouse Sale In February. New York Still Waiting

WAREHOUSE ALERT: Barneys Sets Dates For 11-Day LA Warehouse Sale In February New York Still Waiting

The infallible Internet is telling us that Barneys Warehouse Sale in Los Angeles, which typically precedes the New York version for some reason, will be taking place from February 10th through the 21st. That's 11 days of bargain hunting at the Los Angeles Convention Center on South Figueroa. We have no official dates for the New York sale, but we would expect it to start shortly after the LA sale ends, possibly on the 24th, or possibly on March 1st or 2nd. You may remember that last season's shortened sale wound up being extended because of that little Hurricane that shut down the city. We wonder if they will relent and offer an longer schedule this time. So far the website has not been updated since last season, but we are watching closely.

Barneys Warehouse Sale (Official Site)
Barneys NY Warehouse Sale in LA - CA Feb 2012 (WHSale.com)

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Celebrity Cameo Edition

Believe it or not, The Shophound doesn't always go looking for validation from others, but that doesn't mean we don't mind when someone prominent agrees with us. In other words, Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica thinks just as little of the re-imagined Co-op floor at Barneys as we do. (We promise we didn't plan this day of Barneys-bashing. We have no control over the Critical Shopper's choices of material)

In this week's Thursday Styles, our shopper takes a survey of the men's half of Barneys, and comes up with basically the same feeling we have about the place: The parts that have been left alone are better than the parts they have been fiddling with. The store's strengths remains in classic, luxurious menswear and directional designer collections. He has reserved his most pointed comments for the Co-op. Missing the previous version's cacophonous, eclectic mix, he writes:

...there’s little remarkable about the new Co-Op space, wide and long and inconsistently lighted, with stomach-level racks stuffed full of clothes that, from afar, look half black. Colors appear like oxygen tanks on icy mountaintops, badly needed and hard to come by.

He also mentions that it "has never felt less connected to the rest of the store," which is true now that it is all the way up on the eighth floor. The fact that it is now joined to the women's Co-op is of no consequence to him at all, as this development is barely mentioned at all. He praises the store's seasoned staff, noting that when the R&B matinée idol Usher appeared on the floor, they swarmed to tend to his every need. Perhaps this mention was something a little less than praise, since the non-Ushers among us usually draw slightly less coddling, but there are stars aplenty at Barneys. Cuba Gooding Jr. crashes the column, too.

Critical Shopper: Enduring but Confusing at Barneys By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Barneys New York 660 Madison Avenue at 61st Street, Upper East Side
Previously:
Renovation Deflation: In Which We Continue To Be Disappointed By Changes At Barneys

DECK THE HALLS: Barneys Puts All Of Its Holiday Eggs In Lady GaGa's Tchotchke Basket

So, if you haven't heard, Barneys New York has arranged to focus their Holiday promotion around the still-ubiquitous Lady GaGa. You may be familiar with her. She's this kooky singer...

Anyway, The Shophound is ambivalent about this in much the same way we feel about most of the changes happening at Barneys these days. On the one hand, the former Men's Co-op space on the fifth floor has been impressively outfitted as GaGa's Workshop complete with a series of clever sculptures and installations that turn the place into a wacky Dr. Seuss-ian environment.
On the other hand, it's mostly full of overpriced crap. And we are saying this as someone who generally likes both Barneys and Lady GaGa. We just aren't convinced that they are two great tastes that taste great together.

We refuse to be enchanted by miniature McQueen Armadillo shoes rendered in chocolate if someone thinks that $95 is an appropriate price for perishable foodstuffs. Even if 25% of the price tag is going to GaGa's own charitable foundation, it's still a ridiculous price. You could always argue that luxury stores like Barneys and its ilk are overpriced in general, but, at least most of the time, they genuinely try to justify their high prices by selling special things that justify their steep price tags in some way. Most of what we saw in GaGa's workshop, however, looked like souvenirs that should be sold at a GaGa concert. There are clever items like versions of GaGa's signature hair bow made of hair (around $65) some "cheap" sunglasses $95) and some expensive ones ($295-$465). Well, there was a ton of stuff, really and it included some weirdly, prosaically appealing novelties like a steel Sharpie pen for $18 that could easily be sold anywhere. There was a host of typical gift items like overpriced composition books (the anti-iPads), keychains and wallets. Everything seemed to be touched by shine, glitter or some form of the spiky GaGa workshop logo. The most appealing gift items were a group of plush stuffed monster toys ($48-$95), among the few things offered that we could imagine someone enjoying as more than a stunt gift. Then there were the countless baubles and gewgaws that ranged from interesting to just cheap looking.

The whole endeavor feels like a stunt, however. Barneys will undoubtedly reap the benefit of the enormous amount of publicity the whole promotion has created, but how will it translate into more meaningful business down the line? Contained on its own floor, GaGa's workshop bears little relation to the rest of Barneys as a whole. Even the members of its sales staff, who are way more pierced and mohawked (and young) than even the more daring members of Barneys' regular staff, appear to be specially hired, or more likely cast, for the event. In fact, aside from the Madison Avenue windows (which were not fully completed yesterday), there is little indication that the Holiday season is underway at all in the rest of the store. Having focused all of their attentions on this one project, Barneys has left the rest of its departments entirely bereft of any decorations beyond a few neon signs directing customers to the fifth floor. These signs did not exactly vibe with the elegantly conservative men's main floor department even though its 60th street entrance is graced with the elaborate entrance installation that covers up its display windows entirely. Wandering through the rest of the store, it's hard to imagine that the people who go there to buy their Lanvin, Alaïa and Goyard would really care that much for the glitzy novelty items offered in GaGa's Workshop. What we saw of the windows looked clever, if a bit obvious. Yes, there's an entire window meant to look as if it is made out of hair. It is well executed if not especially unexpected, which pretty much sums up the whole project. It only made us imagine how much fun the now "creative ambassador at large" Simon Doonan could have had with the likes of Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann this year if he were still in charge of the Holiday windows.

While the GaGa department wasn't packed with customers yesterday, we did notice former Barneys chief Gene Pressman looking through the shop. We can only imagine what he may think of all the changes hapening in the store he had such a strong hand in creating a couple of decades ago. On the plus side, the women's side of Barneys' main floor has been completed. We still hate it, but the fishtanks and mosaics in the fine jewelry section have, so far, been left intact, so we haven't lost hope for the place entirely.