They All Came to Barneys

From the streets of New York to the runways of Paris, fashion powerbroker Gene Pressman’s Why Didn’t I Think of That? captures the rise and fall, the secrets and scandals, of his family’s multimillion fashion retail empire

This is the story of Barneys—but not just of the store on 17th Street. It’s also the story of the glitz and grit of New York, and the fashion diaspora from Europe to America to Asia, and the family that was in the middle of it all. Told with the inimitable Gene Pressman’s razor-sharp wit and iconic style, Why Didn’t I Think of That? takes us on an insider’s journey through the history of his family business as he grows into his own as a scion of retail. He gives us the secrets to Barneys’ success—and its failure—in a riotous, scandal-filled adventure perfect for the dreamers and entrepeneurs in all of us.

When the eldest Pressman, Barney, opened his eponymous store of suits in 1923, he couldn’t have imagined that his son and grandsons would transform it into a global empire that revolutionized fashion retail into what we know it as today. Through back-room handshake deals with designers, nights out at New York clubs, rock ’n’ roll concerts, and world tours of fashion’s most exclusive catwalks, the Pressmans came to dress an entire generation of celebrities, models, CEOs, sultans, and people around the world. Take a front-row seat to the rise of some of the biggest names in fashion—Armani, Alaïa, Wintour, Meisel—by the store that made it all happen, even as family disagreements, cost overruns, and scandals began to tear it apart from the inside…