A New Book by Gene Pressman About Barneys New York: Excerpt

On October 20, 1986, New York splashed Barneys across its cover, underneath a giant headline that mimicked our own painstakingly redesigned logo: “ Dressing Up Downtown .” There we were, staring out at you from the newsstand, or up at you from the breakfast table, the Pressman boys, Gene and Bob, arms crossed to indicate serious business, me grinning in a brown and beige houndstooth cashmere jacket by Hermès, Bob starchy and buttoned up with navy blazer. We were leading a charge: Behind us was a phalanx of mannequins that looked like they’d been freed from some Art Deco department store of the ’30s with strong, chiseled, slightly androgynous faces and broad shoulders. They made the usual mannequins look like scrawny waifs. The implication was clear: These goddesses, like us, were ready