A celebrity in my favourite shopping spot: Barneys shoe dept (think it's Vanessa Hudgens)
'To have a barny' is a quaint, Northern term for a bust up, a hoo-hah, a row. Pardon my pun but I smell one brewing at 'top designer store' Barneys.
Sorry if you've heard this before but I am not a fan. The place is jaded and worn out looking, the minimal style is too stark and the clothes look sad, messy and droopy. I don't like the selections the Barneys buyers make from designer ranges and I don't rate the merchandising. The accessories and shoe departments, plus the top floor home decor areas are lovely but the rest of the store is blah. I cannot believe they make any money at all from clothing sales in the Madison Ave flagship.
Enter a new boss. Out goes the old guard. In comes a new, gorgeous, stylish fashion director in the form of Amanda Brooks. She writes books on style, blogs for Vogue and knows what makes women look gorgeous. This is extremely heartening news for those of us who gave up on finding anything beautiful, unique or specially gorgeous clothing-wise in Barneys a long time ago. Amanda looks lovely, let's hope she wants the same for her clientele.
Meanwhile, gossip-column fodder is already bubbling with the appointment of former W magazine art director Dennis Freedman as Creative Director. He replaces Simon Doonan who, the company is at pains to point out, remains a super stylish ambassador at large with a huge influence still on windows, styling etc.
Well Barneys management, I predict a riot. I predict more screaming, queening stand-offs over the Barneys visuals, creatives, windows and art than is to be found on the set of the new Real Housewives of Miami. Knowing as I do, the inner workings of the world of the Highly Fashionable, I know how precious those titles are and how much jostling goes on. What are the new managment thinking? Let's watch and see!
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