From New York, With Love : As Barneys’ Devoted Fans Jam New Store in Beverly Hills, Executives Say the Branch Won’t California-ize

Fashion groupies are on a high.

With all the hype of an old-fashioned movie premiere (well, no kliegs, but five Sunset Boulevard billboards count for something) and a welcoming crowd heavy with studio executives, movie stars, retailing spies and more People in Black than at an art gallery reception, Barneys New York arrived Saturday in Beverly Hills.

The well-dressed--and well-traveled--including Sony Pictures Chairman Peter Guber and actress Winona Ryder, knew what to expect of the neo-Mediterranean shopping palace on Wilshire Boulevard. After New Yorkers, Angelenos make up the second largest chunk of customers at the chain’s New York City flagships. And 10% of Beverly Hills residents already possess Barneys’ black credit cards, said Gene Pressman, company co-president.

But even the initiated were unprepared for gridlock on a wrought-iron staircase fit for Norma Desmond. Pressman and architect Peter Marino, after two jaunts to Spain for inspiration, agreed that stairs should wrap dramatically from the main entrance upward five floors. Overhead, a swimming-pool-sized skylight bathes 100,000 square feet of selling space in sunlight. Those daunted by StairMaster shopping--and there were many--traveled in six elevators. One sophisticate suggested doing the store the Guggenheim Museum way: Ride to the top and walk down.

For the devoted, the store’s arrival couldn’t come soon enough.

“I like to cruise through and see if they have antiques and look at jackets and sweaters,” movie producer Joel Silver said a few days before the opening. “I heard a rumor that Barney Greengrass (a New York deli) will open here, and I’m a Greengrass fan.” It is scheduled to open on the fifth floor, in May.

“Barneys is a fundamental in New York,” said actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who lives there. “Before you grow more refined and learn that Bergdorf Goodman is also exquisite, Barneys speaks to the young. It’s like the great reward if you’re a decent person. You work hard and make money, you get to go to Barneys.”

Designer Richard Tyler, whose clothing for the Anne Klein line hangs in the stores, said: “They have an incredible taste level.”

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“Can we run over and see the billboards?” Gene Pressman asked Simon Doonan, the Englishman responsible for Barneys advertising and famously demented window displays, last week.

“No, no. I’m dying from carbon monoxide. They look really beyond. They look really great.”

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Barneys looks and feels different than traditional department stores. “The thing about (us) is simplicity. We’re not about whistles and bells,” said Pressman, a tousled Robert F. Kennedy look-alike partial to Hermes cashmere houndstooth sport jackets, custom-made (Barneys label) shirts, jeans, penny loafers and white socks. “Our taste is about modern classics, but we’re also avant-garde. We believe in personal style. Our best customers are very confident.”

As Pressman put it rather indelicately, Barneys doesn’t really belong in Beverly Hills. “I would have liked to go to Melrose, but there was no traffic. (Wilshire Boulevard) was very sterile, but now it’s jumping.”

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“Uncle Gene, somebody already bought eight ties in a row,” reported Ned Pressman, 11, son of co-president Robert, on opening day.

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Froufrou is verboten here. Selling spaces are stylishly un-crammed and rarely broken up by boutiques, which are considered passe in Barneys’ country. A menu of architectural details--”frosted dyed fiddleback English sycamore,” “oil quenched steel,” “faux platinum leaf,” “acid etched soda limeglass” and plain old sisal carpeting--give the place a young, clean look.

Although Pressman begs to differ, the store has a reputation for selling mostly black clothing with the same uncluttered lines. Well, OK, navy, white and sand are also popular.

Alexander Julian said he and Barneys parted company two decades ago during the menswear designer’s most colorful period. “Today, I’d love to sell (to) them,” he said. “What they don’t know is, I do black pretty well.”

“We’re not a purple store,” offered Gene Pressman.

That suits the cutting-edge clientele just fine. Said actress Anne Archer, who shops at Barneys in New York: “My worst fear is that they change their look to what they think Californians want.”

So, will Barneys California-ize?

“In terms of the taste level, it’s the same buying,” said Pressman. “If we don’t come in here as Barneys, believe me, we’ll hear about it.” Some adjustments will be made for the climate; heavy coats and sweaters won’t arrive in August.

The designer mix is a crucial component of Barneys’ personality.

“It’s very much one look,” commented Margot Werts, co-owner of American Rag, a complex of hip clothing and home stores on La Brea Avenue, as she inspected on Saturday. “You would have to be thin and rich and young, but I think it will do well. We have many women like that here. I like to see a little bit more color, a little more fun.”

Labels include established designers, such as Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein, and young unknowns exclusive to the chain, such as women’s wear designer Sanchitaajjampur, Keila Jedrik, Demetra, Abe Hamilton, Natalie Valentiny, Wim Neals and Vera Wong Evening. (Barneys has been accused of being slow to pay these small suppliers, a problem it has acknowledged and promised to correct.) One-third of the merchandise bears Barneys’ own, highly regarded private label, from sportswear to perfume to control-top pantyhose and shoes. Hair accessories can be had for as little as $5.

Just as last year’s opening of Barneys in mid-town Manhattan caused competing stores to shore up, its neighbors here have been rather image-conscious of late.

Saks Fifth Avenue started steam-cleaning its walls in January. Saks executive Gary Witkin says a major interior renovation plan, scheduled to begin within 30 days, has been on the agenda for years. Next January, the store will raze the Limited, Ciro’s Jewelry, Aclime and New Man and add on a one-story structure that will encompass the block.

At I. Magnin, Chairman Joseph Cicio said his store’s expanded menswear department and push to emphasize younger designers such as Jil Sander had nothing to do with Barneys. “We needed younger, more contemporary customers without alienating our traditional design customer,” he said.

“I consider Barneys, hopefully, a benefit,” Cicio added. “They’re so focused on their one customer, a very, very contemporary minimalist, and that’s fine. That’s terrific. I’m not worried about (losing) our customer, but I’m hoping we’ll attract some of theirs.”

Department changes and expansions within Neiman Marcus, meanwhile, are part of “continuous fine-tuning,” said Chairman Terry Lundgren. “We need to find every nook and cranny we can (inside the store). Our Beverly Hills store is highly successful. Barneys won’t hurt our business, we’re certain of that. Barneys will be positive for the boulevard.”

Unlike that of its new neighbors, Barneys’ management has stayed within the family. Gene and Robert Pressman’s grandfather, Barney, founded it as a men’s discount clothing store in 1923. Their father, 71-year-old Fred, is chairman, and every other adult family member works in merchandising. Robert, the pin-striped-suit-and-tie foil to Gene, runs the business end.

The family acquired a Japanese partner from which it leases the Wilshire Boulevard site. The making of the deal had its own charm. In April, 1989, Robert Pressman met with Arthur Gilbert, who headed a partnership that owned the land.

“I met him at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club for lunch,” Pressman recalled. “I came in a suit, my associate came in a suit, and Arthur Gilbert’s playing doubles with (playwright) Neil Simon. He towels himself off, says hello, we order lunch and he takes a cocktail napkin from under his ice tea and says, ‘If we can’t make a deal that can fit on this napkin, we can’t make a deal.’ ”

“My strategy was, I wrote very small,” cracked Pressman. The deal closed in a few months later. Construction began on the $50-million-plus building, with five-story underground parking, two years later.

Will Barneys and its New York ways make it in Los Angeles? “Maybe the young, cool market is very small,” said Charles Gallay, whose eponymous shops on Melrose Avenue and Sunset Boulevard are geared at a similar female clientele. “Are there enough customers to finance and support that huge building?” he continued. “If there are, then Terry Lundgren and Mr. Martens (John, vice president of Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills) have been asleep on the job.”