![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1336-h_15247779-1.jpg-PURCHASED-FROM-Redex-Credit-JACK-MANNINGThe-New-York-TimesRedux--scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Barney Pressman, the founder of Barneys, with his son Fred and grandson Gene in the clothing store at Seventh Avenue and 17th Street in Manhattan, November 28, 1979 (Jack Manning\/The New York Times)<\/p>\nThe legendary department store founded by his grandfather, Barney Pressman, in 1923 was a comet that burned bright through many eras of fashion and popular culture, including Studio 54\u2019s heyday and the Dynasty excesses of the \u201880s, as well as \u201890s minimalism, which we recently revisited in Ryan Murphy\u2019s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette<\/a>. Three generations ran the iconic store, including the founder\u2019s son, Fred Pressman, and his grandsons, Gene and Bob. <\/p>\n But the Barneys creative stamp, the dazzling popularity and cultural zeitgeist came from Gene. Texas was part of the Barneys global empire, with an outpost that rose twice at Dallas\u2019s NorthPark Center but unfortunately burned out as any bright solar phenomenon does. The first Barneys store closed in 1997, and that second Dallas store closed in 2013.\u00a0 In Houston, Barneys was at Houston Galleria where Chanel now reigns. The Houston store closed in July 1997; Barneys filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and again in 2019.<\/p>\n A bit of the brilliant star power reflected on PaperCity when, in June 2010, Barneys telephoned for 300 issues of the magazine for their Dallas windows<\/a>. We basked in our 15 minutes.<\/p>\n My personal story with Barneys has several chapters. It all started when I was a poor Manhattanite in the mid-\u201990s. I was in graduate school, and my wardrobe consisted of thrift-store finds supplemented with items scored at sample sales. (Remember the days of keeping one\u2019s weight just right to fit in those pieces?) I would make a pilgrimage to Barneys\u2019 downtown outpost, which had lots of tucked-away passages and staircases; honestly, the interiors felt like an Escher drawing, since you would often get lost. But who cared. When lost, you would often discover a new Belgian designer or niche display of an up-and-coming fine-paper purveyor. <\/p>\n My second chapter with Barneys began when they opened the Dallas location (their second coming), and when I attended the opening soir\u00e9e. Pick up a copy of Pressman\u2019s book when it comes to Dallas this month, and I promise you\u2019ll tear through it in a weekend. If you don\u2019t believe me, consider these celebrity testimonials on the back cover: Calvin Klein: \u201cBarneys was a truly unique experience \u2014 sophisticated, creative, and one of endless discovery.\u201d Marc Jacobs: \u201cGene\u2019s alluring outline of his family\u2019s story is a remarkable account of one of New York City\u2019s most treasured institutions \u2026 It was the original influencer.\u201d<\/p>\n Salon talk and book signing with Gene Pressman moderated by Billy Fong at KD Biel, Saturday, April 11, 6 pm.\u00a0 To RSVP email events@kdbiel.com<\/a><\/p>\n Gene Pressman will also appear at Texas Design Week Houston on Monday, April 13, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, moderated by Francine Ballard, at Park House Houston, for a salon talk and book signing. Tickets and schedule here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hopefully you caught the beginning of our \u201cOde to\u201d series last year in the PaperCity print issue. We\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-231747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>PaperCity issues at Barneys in June 2010<\/p>\n