CONSTRUCTION REPORT: Barneys Will Have A Whole New Storefront In Chelsea

We were all pretty excited to hear that Barneys New York will soon be re-inhabiting the location on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea where it became a world-renowned retailer during the 1980s. If you think, however that the new store will simply slide into its old home with minor renovations, then you don't know Barneys these days. While the exterior of the store has remained relatively intact while construction crews ripped out any trace of the former Lehmann's flagship that took over what was the larger part Barneys' original Men's Store, plywood scaffolding went up a few weeks ago to obscure what looks like a major redesign of the store's façade. The Shophound got a peek inside yesterday afternoon through door left carelessly ajar that shows that the entire ground floor of the store's frontage has been demolished including the grand entrance and the windows that once housed Simon Doonan's infamous Holiday displays. Rumors have the second floor exterior blown out as well, but, so far, that remains to be seen?
What will the new Barneys look like?
Chances are it will have a lot of glass, steel and slabs of marble like its Madison Avenue counterpart, so anyone hoping for a nostalgic feeling when the store finally reopens may have to adjust their expectations.
And about that opening date . . .
About a year ago we heard that the store was pushing it's projected opening forward to January of 2016, and while that was promising news at the time, it seems hard to believe that a new façade could be completed in three months, not to mention that the store's interior space still looks completely gutted.
We may have to cool our heels for just a little bit longer before Barneys once again graces Chelsea with its presence. 

SALE FAIL: The Chelsea Barneys Warehouse Sale Appears To Be Done For Good

Does it feel like there's something missing?
Have the relatively few still fairly decent sample sales going on right now felt like not much of a satisfying offering?
That's because, as far as we can tell, this will be the first the first Labor Day Weekend that there is no Barneys Warehouse Sale somewhere in Chelsea since they started having them.
Yes, we know.
The Shophound has been bitching and moaning about how bad the Warehouse Sale has gotten over the years for quite some time now, and it had become but a shadow of the former basement full of bargains that it was in its heyday. Yet, somehow, we almost always found something there worth our journey downtown. Some shiny bargain, undiscovered by others always managed to get into our hot little hands to complete even a marginally satisfying shopping trip. We have vague memories of walking out of there just a year ago with some once pricey shirts from Michael Bastian and Brioni that ultimately totaled less than $100 —nothing to complain about.
But yes, we had complained repeatedly that the sale had gotten so pathetic that Barneys should just cancel the whole brand-sullying event once and for all and focus on its Warehouse website, and it looks like that is exactly what they have done. While the Warehouse online experience often presents merchandise that is less discounted than what you'll find on the main luxury website's own final end-of-season sales, it still offers some good deals, especially on holiday weekends, like the one that is upon us. That's when extra discounts are applied to certain categories as well as clearance items bringing them close to the best deals that one might once have found in the Chelsea store's basement. Still, online browsing can't compare to intently rummaging through the bins under the original Co-op store on 18th Street (now a Room & Board), and we can't help but miss the late summer routine of deliberately finding a reason to walk down 17th or 18th street to see if any additional markdowns had been posted. Well, things will change. It's the nature of the universe, and  at times over the past few years, it has looked like Barneys was ready to cancel the Warehouse Sale, so it shouldn't be too surprising to discover that it may actually have happened.
R.I.P. Warehouse Sale.
Even though we complained all the time —and you were far from perfect— it turns out we really loved you all along. You are already missed.

TARGETED MARKETING: Barneys Spring Campaign Stars Models Who Are About The Same Age As Their Actual Customers

Barney New York launches its Spring advertising campaign today with a spotlight in today's New York Times on the Bruce Weber lensed story "Better Than Ever" about veteran fashion models surrounded by hot young hunks. The glamorous diva surrounded by scantily clad (and sometimes not clad at all) men is a time honored editorial trope found over the years in campaigns from Valentino to St. John Knits, but the twist here is the notable age difference between the guys and the models including Brooke Shields, Christie Brinkley, Pat Cleveland, Stephanie Seymour, Kiara Kabukuru, Bethann Hardison and Kirsten Owen. At 39, Kabukuru is hardly a senior citizen, but she's probably at least 15 years older than the speedo-wearing guys swirling around her. And Brinkley, who is at the center of the article, is a remarkably well preserved 61 years old. If anything, the campaign is a tribute to good skin care and highly effective cosmetic procedures —there's no possible way that Brinkley looks like that without had some work done, even if it is very, very good work— but the most remarkable aspect of the concept may be Barneys  recognizing that the vast majority of its female customers are well past the ingenue age and more likely to be over 40, 50 and often 60 years of age. After all, it is usually older women who have financial resources to seriously shop at stores like Barneys, and as much as designers and retailers like to aim for a "young" or "dynamic" customer, the reality is often far different, whether they want to accept it or not.
Which brings us to the new campaign, a poolside frolic featuring a few stylishly dressed mature ladies and a flock of young male bathing beauties. Of course, never mind that if the genders were reversed, feminists would be up in arms over the recalcitrant sexism, on a day when the newly unveiled Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model appears to be actively removing her bikini bottom in a way that cannot be shown on morning television, this is actually fairly tame stuff. While Christie Brinkley has been a celebrity model since she was an SI cover girl in the 1980s, Pat Cleveland is an industry icon, and Brooke Shields was a teen superstar actress, but some of the other ladies like Kabukuru and Owen have been working steadily on high fashion shoots, and aren't really considered "mature" or "classic" models as agencies generally refer to their over-40 category. The Supermodels of the 90s, all now in their 40s, still do the occasional runway show as guest stars, but not novelty acts (see Amber Valetta and Eva Herzigova closing last month's Atelier Versace couture show). Though Barneys is playing up the decadent party aspect of the campaign, what is behind it, whether acknowledged or not, is a recognition that the women who end up wearing expensive clothes are more likely to be Brinkley's age than that of the 28 guys surrounding her.
Oh and those guys, well, they are there to remind you that this is a Bruce Weber shoot. In a video embedded In the Times' story (we are trying to get it on the page here for you) there is more than equal time given to their torsos, so the rejection of youthful beauty is maybe just a little disingenuous. It may just be gender reversed —for the moment.

The Fine-Wine Theory of Fashion Advertising By Matthew Schneier (NYTimes)

UPDATE:
Here's the video:

Better Than Ever: Christie Brinkley "Smile" from Barneys The Window on Vimeo.

And here's another from Style.com:

LOCATION MANAGEMENT: Barneys Shutters SoHo Store

Our friends at Racked tell us that the Barneys New York in SoHo, formerly one of the first Co-op spin-off locations, has been closed permanently. Before Barneys moved in, the store was New York's Comme des Garçons boutique before it moved to its current less prominent (and therefore more appealing to designer Rei Kwakubo) West 22nd Street location. Barneys swiftly moved in and opened a Co-op store for women only, but changed little of the industrial '80s SoHo-style concrete and steel store design (pictured at right). Converting the unconventionally laid out boutique to Barneys' current glass, chrome and marble decor would have been an elaborate and costly undertaking. Then there's the inevitable rent hike that would have come with a lease renewal in a neighborhood that is more desirable than ever. It is likely that the folks at Barneys smartly decided to take their chances and redirect their SoHo customers to the new store being constructed inside the chain's original flagship in Chelsea. That opening has been pushed up to sometime next year, so for now, Barneys' only New York City locations are the Madison Avenue Flagship and the former Co-op stores on Broadway on the Upper West Side and on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn —down two doors from just a couple of years ago.

Manhattan Is Down One Barneys New York Location (Racked)

THE WINDOW WATCHER: Barneys Finally Hits The Right Note For The Holidays

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As we have mentioned before in the past few weeks, Barneys New York's experience with the Holiday Promotion season has been problematic to put it politely. This year, however, the folks in the head office seem to have gone to great lengths, and even greater expense, to reverse that unfortunate streak.
And it looks like they have succeeded by finding creative collaborators in film director Baz Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin whose glitzy and often loopy sensibility recalls that slogan that Barneys' management has been busy trying to erase from its customers' memories: "Taste! Luxury! Humor!"
This season's slogan "Truth · Beauty · Freedom · Love" comes straight from the Bohemians of Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge. While the store may never revive Simon Doonan's wicked, comical caricature windows for the Holidays that brought such acclaim in the store's past, through collaborating with Luhrmann and Martin, they have revisited the sense of fun and surprise that has been lacking in the past few years. While we didn't get to catch "Elphresh" the dancing elf, who apparently appears on the hour to dance in his "Love" window, we caught a few moments of Celestia the Ice princess tentatively skating around her somewhat ironically titled "Freedom" corner display (in the gallery above). There is a mechanized owl for "Truth" and a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture called "The Spirits of the Snow" rightfully occupying the "Beauty" window. Acapella supergroup Pentatonix has recorded a special soundtrack for each window, and, of course, the dramatic decorative structure over the façade is more the sort of thing that stores will re-use for several years, although it is hard to imagine Barneys re-installing this again without the Luhrmann's cooperation. 
And that, aside from the general pleasure in seeing the store finally get it right, is the other thing that sticks out about this whole promotion: the staggering expense it must have taken to pull it all together including the lavish one-time only production number the store staged on Monday for the unveiling. Inside the store, there is less decoration except for some custom-designed gold wallpaper wrapped around the a few columns on the main floor and holiday motifs at the escalator landing displays. The store has put most of its money on the outside for maximum visibility, which makes sense on a certain level. Barneys has spared no expense this Holiday season in part because the store is under great pressure not to botch the season again, especially after last year's regrettable shoplifting profiling scandal. The good news is that it looks like they succeeded. After the jump, have a look at a video featuring a behind the scenes look at the promotion as well as some footage from the opening extravaganza which was, apparently, not to be dampened by soggy weather.

THE WINDOW WATCHER: Barneys' Baz-Dazzled Holiday Promotion To Debut On Thursday + Unveiling Dates For Lord & Taylor, Saks & Bergdorf's

Thanksgiving is kinda late-ish this year, which seems to have given New York's retailers license to unveil their Holiday windows as early as possible. Walk past Manhattan's big stores this week and see all the windows conspicuously shrouded as the visual teams furiously work to get those lights and tinsel trees in place. Barneys' highly publicized promotion with film director Baz Luhrmann is set to be unveiled tomorrow, just as the weather is finally expected to cool down to something reasonably appropriate for the Holiday season (it is currently 61˚F  outside as we type this). 
Barneys has a lot riding on the Luhrmann collaboration. It's Holiday promotions have hit sour notes for the past three years running which is particularly embarrassing for a store whose hilarious Holiday windows were once the talk of the town and one of the store's signature elements. This time, under Luhrmann's direction, the store will be going big and reintroducing some glitter and whimsy back into its newly super-serious minimalistic store. The Madison Avenue storefront will be covered with an elaborate façade (rendering pictured above), and, beyond just having animated displays, Luhrmann, is wife and creative partner Catherine Martin and designer Zaldy have been creating elaborate costumes for live performers who will appear in the windows and on the store's balconies throughout the season. Shoppers can look forward to ice skaters in the windows and a dancer/contortionist called Elphresh who will appear in a glittering gold romper. Weekends will bring the Queens of Night and Light appearing hourly on the store's second floor balconies in voluminous ballgowns to serenade the Madison Avenue crowds and more. We are cautiously optimistic that, after forays into celebrity, cartoons, ostentatious hip-hop-tinged special items and pretentious artsy-fartsy-ness, the folks currently running Barneys may have finally found their way back to the kind of sensibility that originally endeared New Yorkers to Barneys in the first place. If this Holiday promotion resonates with customers, maybe they will re-evaluate that "Taste! Luxury! Humor!" slogan they were so quick to dismiss.
Anyway, Barneys isn't the only store throwing itself a party tomorrow. Lord & Taylor, which is undergoing its own ongoing rejuvenation program, will be lighting up its windows on Thursday as well.
Bergdorf Goodman will be unveiling its windows, currently the city's most acclaimed, on Monday the 17th. The UNICEF Snowflake over the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street will also be lit simultaneously, and 10% of the evening's proceeds will be donated to the U.S. fund for UNICEF.
Saks Fifth Avenue is conservatively holding its Holiday window reveal back until Monday November 24. With new ownership and management, the store is also looking to make a splash, so say goodbye to those illuminated dancing snowflakes on the façade that the store has presented in the past seasons. This year, Saks is promising The Rockettes themselves at the unveiling as well as a display from Fireworks by Grucci. The windows will pay tribute to the Roaring '20s and include brand new high-tech projections and lighting schemes. The launch will be live-streamed at Saks.com.
Bloomingdale's will be celebrating its windows on Monday as well with a live performance from Broadway star Idina Menzel at 5 PM on the Beacon Court of the Bloomberg Building across 59th Street along with the cast of the Off-Broadway show Illuminate.
Plan to leave work early.

Previously:
The Holiday Race: Barneys Taps Baz Luhrmann For One More Shot At Holiday Glory

EARLY ARRIVAL: Barneys Returning To Chelsea Sooner Than Planned

As happy as everyone was to hear that Barneys New York was reclaiming part of its original Men's Store on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea, the disappointment was having to wait until 2017 for the store to open. Now, it appears that the schedule has been accelerated. Quietly dropped into a WWD article about the chain's renovation of its Beverly Hills store is the news that the new Chelsea store is set to open in January of 2016, which is less than a year and a half away.
Why the new date?
Perhaps renovations are less extensive than was expected, or are simply going faster. At one point The Shophound came across a proposed redesign of the store's façade that was quite extensive and would have dramatically changed the look of the building. We aren't sure if it was ever fully in the plans, but perhaps scrapping it has moved up the finish date, as the building currently does not appear to be undergoing much in the way of exterior revision to accommodate the upcoming store.
At any rate, more Barneys coming faster is a good thing.
No word yet on the possibly unlikely but very exciting notion that the store would take over the rest of its original Chelsea store now that the Rubin Museum has sold the building, but they haven't said that they aren't doing that, so we will continue to maintain that probably delusional possibility.

Previously:
Boomerang: Barneys To Open A Downtown Flagship At Its Old Downtown Flagship

THE HOLIDAY RACE: Barneys Taps Baz Luhrmann For One More Shot At Holiday Glory

It has been a rough road for the current management team at Barneys New York when it comes to the Holiday Season. Last year's big Jay Z promotional effort collapsed as a particularly ill-timed discrimination scandal unfolded, forcing the cancellation of a gala launch event. Previous efforts involving Disney and Lady Gaga were criticized as off-key and off-brand for a store as sophisticated and exclusive as Barneys, but this year, it looks like the retailer is taking some steps toward the kind of promotion its customers have come to expect by joining forces with acclaimed Australian director Baz Luhrmann for a Holiday program to be called Baz Dazzled.
Luhrmann along with his wife and key collaborator Catherine Martin have developed a multi-platform initiative that will cover shopping bags (pictured above), in-store displays, special products and, of course, windows. The crest pictured on the bag will be the jumping-off point for the program with its artwork set to be re-created in the windows for a six-week run. “We’re entering a whole different world of theater film, costume design and performance,” said Dennis Freedman, Barneys’ creative director, tells WWD. “I hope people are going to be thrilled to see these woodland creatures come alive." Animated displays will have the windows moving round-the-clock and live performances will take place in them throughout the Holiday season. In addition, an elaborate facade will be constructed over the store's Madison Avenue façade.
Special limited edition items developed for the store will include, among other things, a handcrafted Champagne saber, children's costumes and a backgammon set. Expect to start hearing more about it around mid-November, which is not as far away as you might think.

Barneys Teams With Baz Luhrmann for Holiday Campaign (WWD)

WEEKEND SPECIAL: Barneys Warehouse Sale Hits ½ Price

Well, now that we know rolling markdowns are in effect, The Shophound couldn't help checking back at the Barneys Warehouse Sale this afternoon where we found discounts rising to 50% off the ticket price on pretty much everything except the tiny table of home goods (Why even bother?) which is holding at 25% off according to the posted  update seen above. Men's dress shirts and ties are now $39 and $19 apiece respectively which led to something of a feeding frenzy that had customers digging through the backstock boxes under the tables , exasperating the attendants tasked with keeping the stock orderly. Most of it was private label basics —still a very good deal— but if you actually happen upon a stray Armani or Brioni piece, then you have really hit the jackpot. As for the rest of the merchandise, it was pretty picked over when the sale opened last week, so you can imagine how sad most of it looks now. However, if you do find something, now it's probably a really great price. Will there be another price slashing before the last day on Monday? Stranger things have been known to happen, so stay tuned.

Barneys Warehouse Sale Through Labor Day September 1 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, entrance at 110 West 19th Street between Sixth & Seventh Avenues, Chelsea
Previously:
Warehouse Update: There Are Markdowns At The Barneys Warehouse Sale

WAREHOUSE UPDATE: There Are Markdowns At The Barneys Warehouse Sale

To be honest, The Shophound nearly forgot that The Barneys Warehouse Sale was even still happening, but since we were in Chelsea yesterday afternoon, we thought we would stop in for just a second to see how things were progressing. To our surprise we saw something that really didn't happen at the sale last year: Markdowns! It turns out that the folks at Barneys actually learned a lesson from last August's poorly received event and decided to re-instate the kind of time-released discounts that Warehouse Sale shoppers have come to anticipate.

Yes, the pickings are still meager, and our initial assessment of general suckage still holds, but now there are discounts across the board which may make shopping more worth your while. Discounts run from 25% to 40% off the ticketed price (see details above), and certain categories like men's dress shirts at $59 and neckties at $39 are at an easy-to-calculate flat price making either purchase a good deal. Since the sale runs through Monday, the possibility of more markdowns is strong, so you may want to think about a visit over the weekend if you are in town. We will try and check again for more updates, so stay tuned if you are holding out for last day, rock bottom savings.

Barneys Warehouse Sale Through Labor Day September 1 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, entrance at 110 West 19th Street between Sixth & Seventh Avenues, Chelsea
Previously:
Return Engagement: The Barneys Warehouse Sale is Back And It Still Sucks