The collection evokes quiet luxury and is also quietly non-gendered. Every piece — which includes skirts, tailored suiting, overcoats and chunky jackets — was fitted on both male and female models. Shoulders are slightly broader, sleeves longer, giving an oversized look that manages not to scream masculine or Barbie.
Today’s collaboration might appear at first glance to be an awkward dethroning for Barneys — and it’s questionable whether the company would have agreed to such a pairing before its own bankruptcy. However, it is putting the Barneys name back out there on products that marry the ethos of both companies — lasting timeless quality with compromises in fabrics that bring affordability.
This is the most public move by Park since she was hired as CEO a year and a half ago by Authentic Brands Group, the 12-year-old brand management company that has been gobbling up ailing fashion labels including Vince, Hunter, Quiksilver and a handful of surf brands. The New York company bought the intellectual property of Forever 21 in 2020, about a year after buying the Barneys IP. Authentic Brands’s raison d’être is to goose the values inherent in the brands it buys.
Forever 21 was once an American fashion success story, founded by Korean immigrants in 1984, it reported $4.4 billion in sales in 2015. Just four years later, after an over-aggressive store expansion and falling behind rivals including Zara and H&M, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which led to its sale to Authentic Brands.
It was Park who approached Authentic Brands Group founder Jamie Salter to pursue a brand partnership. The idea started as an ungendered collection, Park says. While brainstorming, she says she recalled the company’s ownership of the Barneys brand.
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