The Tamesis
Julie Gilhart, a fashion consultant who has served as senior vice president and fashion director of Barneys for 18 years, said that bringing Barneys back to people’s memories is more than just a business transaction. “Barneys was founded with a love and passion for retail, people and people. That’s the secret,” she said. “Business will follow.”
The key to relaunching Barneys was to balance the nostalgia prevalent in the fashion world and focus on creating something new and fresh for the modern retail scene. ’90s nostalgia peaked in the 1990s love story“Now feels like a good time to revive Barneys, as long as they don’t water down or cheapen the original vision,” said Malcolm Carfrae, founder of Carfrae Consulting and former chief communications officer at Calvin Klein. “It needs to be relevant to the present and not copy what was done decades ago.”
Gearhart agrees. She’s not confident the “old” Barneys will ever come back, but believes there are lessons to be learned from the way the store is run. “If you put the right partners together, you could potentially have a Barneys-style store — but you have to have real, genuine merchants and retailers who have their finger on the pulse and are willing to take risks rather than looking at what their neighbors are doing,” she said. “If they want to do something fun and inspiring, that will create business.”
money is important
Pressman said the number one factor that will determine Barneys’ success in 2026 is investment. “Whoever funds this project [must be] Be willing to inject enough capital to make this happen. There are no shortcuts,” he said.
Although Authentic said it would consider opening smaller Barneys concept stores, Pressman firmly believes that if it is going to operate large stores, Barneys should only exist in two places: New York and Los Angeles. (It could and should be on the Internet, he added.)
Burke also expressed doubts about Authentic’s plans to open a Barneys at the former location. “It will be compared to the original Barneys, which was built over many decades,” he said. Instead, Burke would like to see Barneys open in phases, starting small to better execute its plans.
After all, Barneys’ most important investment will be its merchandise. Here, the store had to move away from its pre-2000s approach and focus on young, emerging designers. “It’s about energy, belief, commitment and working with young designers — but it requires funding,” Pressman said. In 2026, margins are razor-thin, every dollar must be used wisely, and taking the time and risk to find and invest in unknown talent is a tall order. It’s also the only way to stand out.
“You don’t want another Chloé, another LVMH [brands]”, Sykes said. “They have to go out and find those cool little brands that get people excited because they don’t see them on everyone they know yet. “
Burke, who was working at rival Bergdorf Goodman at the time, said the Barneys team was also very competitive at the time. “Barneys’ exclusivity demand is very important to them and they support those brands and support them,” he said. Competition will intensify by 2026, as independent boutiques are better able to discover and recruit early-stage brands, and large legacy brands like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom lean further into emerging designers earlier — again requiring a larger investment from Barneys.
