The luxury department store adored – and frequented – by Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf and Carrie Bradshaw in their respective sartorial dramas, Gossip Girl and Sex and The City, will be ushering in shoppers for the last time across 15 of their 22 outlets.
Those swinging branded bags, those revolving doors – a moving advertisement for the mecca of New York shopping that is – was – Barneys. Rumours circulated last week that it was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy – and now it has been confirmed. The retailer, which opened its doors in New York in 1923 has made the decision to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with debts of between $100 and $500 million.
Barneys flagship shops on New York’s Madison Avenue, and in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and Boston, are to remain open whilst a handful of other outlets, some flagships, in Chicago, Las Vegas and Seattle, will close their doors for good. The company has been kept afloat after securing $75 million in funds from Hilco Global and Gordon Brothers Group, who have a history of snapping up down and out companies.
This isn’t the first time Barneys has sunk – it filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s before enjoying a revival in the the golden age of shopping glamourised and fuelled by Sex and the City and Gossip Girl. Preppy Blair Waldorf with her plump headbands and below the knee socks, played by Leighton Meester, could be heard exclaiming, ‘Barneys, Bergdorf’s and Bendel’s!’ – revelling in the triumvirate of American shopping greats.
Barneys chief executive, Daniella Vitale, commented that Barneys has been ‘dramatically impacted by the challenging retail environment and rent structures that are excessively high relative to market demand.’ RIP to a department store par excellence that has weathered, up until now, the highs and the lows of the tumultuous high street. Those memorable scenes in Gossip Girl and Sex and the City will adopt a melanchony glow – glimmers from a time of retail prosperity.
