The Rise and Fall of the House of Barneys: A Family Tale of Chutzpah, Glory, and Greed - Hardcover

Levine, Joshua

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688155022 ISBN 13: 9780688155025

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1999

Synopsis

A scintillating true tale of miracles and misdeeds in the world of retail focuses on the meticulous construction of Barney's over two generations, and the relatively brief unraveling that occurred under the inept leadership of several family members.

About this title

About the Author

Joshua Levine, a senior editor at Forbes, lives in New York City. This is his first book.

Reviews

The once glittering image of Barneys takes a further drubbing in this dishy, highly entertaining history of the Pressman family store that got too big for its very expensive britches. Levine, a senior editor at Forbes, meticulously lays out the financial goods on the famed clothing store, which began in 1923 as a Chelsea storefront selling secondhand men's suits and, before filing for bankruptcy in 1996, set the standard for upscale retailing. The nuts-and-bolts business details are interesting in themselves: patriarch Barney Pressman started the business with $500 he got from hocking an engagement ring, and the empire ended with his grandson Bob's byzantine accounting manipulations masking $550 million in debt. On the human level, Levine makes clear how the flamboyant, warring personalities in the family (boisterous, stuttering Barney; cool and savvy son, Fred; and the wild boys of the third generation, brothers Gene and Bob) figured in the store's 70-year arc from rags up to the height of fashion and finally back down to financial tatters. The end of this archetypal story of family, money and betrayal was played out as a dynastic high drama that some have called the "Yiddish Theater Euripides." Levine lavishes his most loving attention on Barney Pressman, a blustery and wily self-promoter who reveled in billing himself as "the cut-rate clothing king." He shows no mercy toward Gene and Bob, who not only lost the family store but also, according to Levine, were more concerned with putting money into their pockets than into their business. With a sure command of both numbers and narrative, Levine fits his prose to his subject matter in fine, high style. Agent, Alice Martell.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

To New Yorkers, this is a local story, focused on one of the largest retail clothing stores in Manhattan. To most of the rest of the country, however, Barneys may be an unfamiliar name and the draw for this title may come mostly as a morality tale of abused family fortunes. Three generations of the Pressman family star in this business chronology. Barney Pressman, the founder, began peddling secondhand suits in 1923 in a 500-square-foot storefront, the startup money raised by pawning his wife's wedding ring. Hard work and a talent for sales propelled his modest venture into a thriving retail enterprise by the time Barney's son Fred joined the business in 1947, fresh out of Harvard law school. Fred Pressman learned the basics of menswear manufacturing and retailing while on the job, but diverged from his father's path to establish novel methods of marketing and merchandising. Barneys became a mecca for quality, selection, and price, usually trumping all other menswear outlets in the city. On Fred's heels came the third generation, two sons raised in an upper-income environment and lured into the family business by the sharing of its wealth and power. In the 1980s and early 1990s, they took over the business and pushed it to an even higher level of sophistication. But in a very few years, all of this history came unglued as their talents were outrun by their rush to expand and their inability to manage their own affairs. Barneys was forced into bankruptcy in 1996, ``done in by debt and disorder.'' No complex business studies are needed to make sense of this disaster; the deeds of the grandsons speak for themselves. The author, a senior editor at Forbes, did not have the cooperation of the Pressman family, perhaps limiting his scope but not diminishing the impact of the mess they left behind. (16 b&w photos, not seen)a -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Forbes editor Levine chronicles the fortunes of Barneys, a firm built on the hard work of two generations and destroyed by the third. (Barneys filed for Chapter 11 in 1996 and emerged from bankruptcy just this February, having been bought by two companies, Whipoorwill Associates and Bay Harbor Management.) Barney Pressman began by selling used clothing and opened a store in Manhattan's Chelsea area in 1923. Barneys became noted for its ability to fit anyone. Barney's son, Fred, proved to have a talent for the business as well. Wives and children were all involved, and just about every new venture turned to gold. The third generation, Bob and Gene, expanded Barneys to other cities and built a second New York City store they felt would rival any in the world. No expense was spared in any of these ventures, which was perhaps the problem. Levine does a fine job of chronicling the business's rise and paints an informative picture of the industry over three generations. Recommended for public and university libraries and company libraries in the retail area.
-ALittleton M. Maxwell, Business Information Ctr., Univ. of Richmond, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688155022
• ISBN 13: 9780688155025
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256