The End of Barneys? Not So Fast

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“If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.”—Tory Burch

Shopping Upheaval

The Luxury Department Store?

Is the department store an endangered species? Sure, brick-and-mortar retail has been in a dicey situation for a few years now, but one would expect that some beloved stores could find a way to adapt, given their storied heritage. Following the closure of all Henri Bendel locations earlier this year, Barneys is the latest New York–founded department store to face trouble. The 96-year-old business has filed for bankruptcy. Fifteen of its 22 stores are set to close, but the company has received some financing to keep it going until it can find a possible buyer, and two additional planned stores, in Miami and New Jersey, will still open. So what happened at what is generally considered the hippest of the legacy department stores? Well, there’s been some shakeup in its executive ranks over the past few years, and the competition from online retailers hasn’t helped—especially considering that the company was slow to embrace e-commerce. A major factor may be the heavy rents that Barneys pays for its stores. According to Bloomberg, the rent on its iconic Madison Avenue store tripled this year (if luxury department stores can’t afford luxury commercial real estate these days, who can?). The outlook on its chances is mixed, but for now, at least, the company will keep going. And in case you’re wondering, no major sales events have been confirmed so far. Of course, it’s not just the luxury department stores that are struggling. The futures of brands as varied in price point as Forever 21 and ASOS are also in question. So where, exactly, will we buy our clothes in the future? Well, the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshall’s remains America’s most profitable clothing retailer.

Gigi and Her Bachelor

Bella and The Weeknd

We often lump the Hadids into the same group as the Kardashian-Jenners, which is not completely fair even if the two families are notably friendly. The Hadids, for example, do not have good portions of their existence taped for a long-running reality show (well, not since their mother, Yolanda Hadid, left Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, that is), which is probably better for the overall brand, to be honest. Yet this week the nosier among us might wish the Hadids’ lives were taped. The oft-overlooked younger brother, Anwar, started the gossip mill running earlier this summer when he was linked to the pop star Dua Lipa, a random celeb summer romance if ever there was one. This appears to be more than a fling, however, as the two have now gone Instagram official. That was nothing, though, compared to Gigi Hadid finding herself inserted into a drama that crossed over to, of all things, The Bachelorette. The most recent season’s runner-up, Tyler Cameron, is like a leading man right out of a Hallmark Network romance movie. He’s a former college football player turned male model with an MBA and both abs and a jawline sculpted out of granite. For those not initiated, this season of The Bachelorette ended with Hannah Brown realizing that she had made a mistake with her choice and ending the finale by asking Cameron out for drinks while admitting she still had feelings. It seems, however, that Hadid swooped in instead. Hadid and Cameron follow each other on Instagram, and have been spotted hanging out at least twice now. No one is quite sure what’s going on there, but Hadid’s dating life has been pretty quiet since her split from Zayn Malik. She certainly wouldn’t be the first celebrity to dip into the Bachelor Nation dating pool. Not to be outdone, Bella Hadid had some relationship drama of her own this week as multiple outlets reported she had split, for the second time, from her longtime beau Abel Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd. Reportedly, the pair’s busy schedules had kept them apart for too long. However, more recent items indicate that they’re still together and working on aligning their time together. So who knows?

Succession Hive

Melissa, Tiffany, and Elisabeth

August carries the reputation of being one of the months when studios dump the movies they can’t figure out what else to do with. That doesn’t necessarily mean those movies are the worst or that they won’t be profitable, it just means we’re edging out of big summer blockbuster territory but not quite into fall’s prestige film season, either. This weekend’s odd grab-bag of box office offerings certainly attests to that. Dora and the City of Gold, a live-action adaptation of the Nick Jr. cartoon staple Dora the Explorer, is somewhat curiously the best-reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes so far. It also might be the only one with a chance to take the number one spot away from Hobbs & Shaw. Elsewhere you have The Kitchen, a movie that finds Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Tiffany Haddish as mob wives in ‘70s Hell’s Kitchen who take over their husbands’ business when they’re sent to jail. This certainly had us excited when it was announced, but early reviews are suggesting a disappointing missed opportunity, given the talent involved. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, based on the cult-classic children’s book, seems to hope to ride a nostalgia wave with assists from Guillermo Del Toro as a producer and Lana Del Rey headlining the soundtrack. Reviews haven’t been released, though. The Art of Racing in the Rain features Kevin Costner as the voice of a wise dog owned by an aspiring race car driver, a description that opens up a rabbit hole of questions we’re not sure we want to fall into. Finally, there’s Brian Banks, the true story of a high school football star who was falsely imprisoned for six years for a crime he didn’t commit. Like we said: It’s August.

Television is a bit simpler to figure out this weekend, with two buzzed-about shows returning. First, there’s GLOW’s third season on Netflix on Friday, and then on Sunday, HBO gives us the second season of Succession, the media-world drama that people on Twitter have not stopped buzzing about for the past year. If there’s any doubt that HBO is still the king of the cluttered TV landscape, even its shows that aren’t marquee programs (think this, Chernobyl, Years & Years, Euphoria) still manage to find devoted followings.

Isabela Moner

@IsabelaMoner

Isabela Moner, who is already a Nickelodeon luminary and is now a movie star thanks to Dora, likes to hang out with her three-legged dog, Pluto.