Retail Confessions: Barneys New York

"I’d spend hours talking to these women about their lives and think, 'Do they have friends?' It felt gross that I had to turn every conversation into a sales pitch."

Barneys New York was one of the most mythologized retail meccas of the nineties and aughts. Regularly extolled in fashion shows like Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, the chain was known for its cutting-edge assortment of designer clothes, including up-and-comers like Proenza Schouler. After many years of financial problems, Barneys finally went bust in early 2020, resulting in the closure of its 22 stores.

“There were certain things where it's like, who came up with this?” recalled a former employee of the Barneys San Francisco flagship, who worked there in the 2010s, when Silicon Valley tech workers were getting rich and becoming interested in designer clothes. “One holiday season, they did this Lady Gaga holiday [‘Gaga’s Workshop,’ featuring limited edition gift items designed by her]. I was like, what is this? They played Lady Gaga all season long, and it was on all the bags, and the whole holiday aesthetic was Gaga-fied. And I was like, This does not connect to the customer base. Why this is happening?”

But Gaga’s Workshop may have been the least of Barneys problems. This person and their colleagues on the designer floor spent most of their time selling to around 20 Very Important Clients, defined as the top 2 percent of shoppers who account for around 40 percent of luxury fashion sales. Maybe that was never enough to justify a San Francisco store.

Who would shop at Barneys in San Francisco?

I remember Kamala Harris coming in. She was one of the top clients back in those days. She was still [attorney general]. She wasn't my client. She would shop with the stylist who had his own office upstairs. But I remember whenever she would come in, she was very glamorous, and everyone thought she was going places. She would buy Celine [then designed by Phoebe Philo] and Stella McCartney. The Row was also really coming up, with their $800 cashmere sweaters. She mostly stayed away from The Row leather leggings, which everybody else wanted.

Was she buying pantsuits?

Pretty much. She was super nice. She has style and she knows what she's doing.

Around this time, suddenly people in San Francisco who didn't care about clothes had money. I think Barneys buyers had that in mind and filled the store with proto-quiet luxury. Someone like her does stick in my mind, because she was wearing fashion. All day long it was just The Row sweaters, Rick Owens leather jackets, that Balenciaga leather jacket, and then the ladies from Pacific Heights [an affluent neighborhood] would come in and buy Alaïa dresses. A lot of my clients were women who had lived in San Francisco their entire lives, who were very wealthy and prim and traditional. So much of my job at the time was just talking with them on the phone. I eventually started to feel a little icky about it.  

I’d spend hours talking to these women about their lives and think, Do they have friends? I was in my twenties. What am I doing talking to these women about their lives for hours? And then, “By the way, there's this new collection in, can I send it to you?” It felt gross that I had to turn every conversation into a sales pitch.

Which of those clients do you remember most?

I had one client who was my favorite because she had a job.