#penguins remind me of Wu Chang in a way

[diegusting]

Inktober: day 4 - Exotic

I feel like for a sailor (and ex pirate) like him, the most exotic place would probably be somewhere barely accessible like Antarctica

[maximuswolf]

Studying China: a resource for Political Economy and (some) Ideology via /r/communism

Studying China: a resource for Political Economy and (some) Ideology

Edit: it looks like my formatting didn’t work in many places (ie: further indenting under bullet points) so I will work on fixing that if the post is unclear

Skip the first three sections if you just want the resources

Introduction

On this forum, there is a void when it comes to political-economic resources for China's post-reform period. To be more specific I refer to a lack of a unified and continuous literature source, for MIM (for example) has some valuable resources to a certain extent (which I will be listing), say up to the 90s, but the literature seems to end there (save for some bits and pieces of theory which reference China, or literature which otherwise concerns them more generally). For Reddit, the most valuable conversation and resources are spread about various comment sections while the most unified material is unsatisfactory. I say this in the most general sense but it should be clear to everyone that news stories and books by politicians are far from satisfactory, and an informative post which primarily draws upon such sources is not doing the necessary work. This post seeks to begin remedying this (I do not claim that I can provide a super resource to fill the gaps).

I won't simply be drawing upon sources which have already been read such as MIM theory and Li Minqi etc. (although they will most certainly be included here); I will also be drawing upon a burgeoning field of English-written (or translated) Chinese Marxian political economy, and more varied sources such as those which posters here have made reference to (for example, those examining the regional economic relationship of South Korea/Japan and China).

The end goal is to promote a more accurate understanding of modern China.

Why are previous megathreads unsatisfactory?

They have been primarily focused on ideology, and it is not clear how deep an ideological understanding one could even get from reading them.

As Marx said:

My view is that each particular mode of production, and the relations of production corresponding to it at each given moment, in short 'the economic structure of society', is 'the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness', and that 'the mode of production of material life' conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life'.

Footnote #35, pp. 175 of Penguin Classics edition of Capital Vol. 1 (1976) (this quote is originally from A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, but I use Capital for its surrounding discussion)

Here Marx gives the example of bourgeois political economists who argue that the social formations attributable to the existing capitalist mode of production are in fact self-evident or attributable to nature; those same political economists treating pre-bourgeois social organizations of production ("natural" products of their time) as backward "in much the same way as the Fathers of the Church treated pre-Christian religions" (ibid, pp.175). Hence the given ideology which is tied to a given mode of production is considerably conditioned by it while the old social formations - no longer of immediate value - either fade or are cast aside.

This doesn’t deny “dual movement”, nor does it deny the value of studying ideology. Studying from the ideological angle may provide some valuable clues; for instance, we might assume that the appearance of contradictions in a given ideology are products of definite contradictions of the mode of production, where the more contradictory a given ideology seems, the more the struggle of opposing forces there will be in the mode of production which it seeks to justify. But we are counting on being able to recognize such contradictions in the first place; we will be struggling against the process of naturalization in doing so, and the process of naturalization paints over such contradictions as “the way things are”. To extend the analysis here without a material rooting, one can only make abstract claims to meet the abstract claims of the other; and so we enter into a meta-narrative (not to mention being limited to a priori distinctions).

And so it is that Marx did not write Capital while relying on or abandoning the words of bourgeois political economists and statesmen, but instead using them as supplementary material (separating the wheat from the chaff in the process). To this end this megathread adds to the existing forum resources (and I will still include a section of resources which are influential to or indicative of CPC policy, including some ideological work, so it is not pure political economy).

"Advisories"

This is not a perfect list, nor do I consider it a perfect post!

This compilation is curated (as it is limited to what literature I am aware of, and is mostly focused on the post-reform economy as a point of contention), and I would not consider it as the be-all-end-all of understanding China's political economy (work is definitely missing). I tried to give easily accessible links for the literature but unfortunately I could not find links for all (here I place a subtle reminder about sci-hub and libgen). I would hope that the reader is able to supply some of their own literature and make connections to that which they have already read/will read. The point, then, is to provide some valuable resources and directions for research which vary (they do not all complement each other); further, while not all are new to Reddit (some I've compiled by combing the forum), put together they provide a very solid base.

At times it will be necessary for the reader to extract the useful bits from otherwise shady writing should they be written by non-Marxian economists or be theoretically insufficient or confusing (if they are neoclassical thought hidden under Marxist language, for example). I’m sure that we, as communists, are all able to accomplish this (and therein lies the assumption that some communist theory has been read prior to diving in here).

Finally, this is a page in progress. I will add works that I find later on, or good works that are suggested to me, and I may even edit later on to give explanations and/or summaries of the literature choices or otherwise trim the post (if I find the time and motivation to do this). FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR READING ARE WELCOME FOR EVERY SECTION!

Anyway, let's get into it.

General works for China's economy

Analyses of the economy of China (or aspects of it) from different periods in history or across them:

Bettelheim: Cultural Revolution and Industrial Organization in China

Bramall: Chinese Economic Development (bourgeois economics but good data and sympathetic to Mao)

Long & Herrera: The Enigma of China’s Growth

Hinton: Fanshen - a documentary of revolution in a Chinese village

Wheelwright and MacFarlane: The Chinese Road to Socialism - Economics of the Cultural Revolution

Liu Suinan & Wu Wungan: China's Socialist Economy: An Outline History (1949-1984)

Park: Political Economy of Post-Revolutionary China

Hart-Landsberg & Burkett: China, Capitalist Accumulation, and Labor

Li: Rise of China and Demise of Global Capitalism

Various Authors: Routledge Studies on the Chinese Economy (a good resource for lots of economic analyses, but be on the lookout for bad takes)

China's economy nested within a global perspective

For those works which conceptualize or touch upon China but take a global (or regional) perspective:

King: Lenin's Theory of Imperialism Today - The Global Divide between Monopoly and Non-Monopoly Capital

Smith: Imperialism in the 21st Century

Suwandi: Value Chains: The New Economic Imperialism

Cope & Lauesen: Imperialism and the Transformation of Values into Prices

Arrighi: Adam Smith in Beijing

Bunker & Ciccantell: East Asia and the Global Economy (bourgeois economics, but valuable)

Long, Feng, Li & Herrera: U.S.-China Trade War: Has the Real "Thief" Finally Been Unmasked?

Gunder-Frank: ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian Age

Duke Global Value Chains Center

A center for GVC analyses which contains empirical work; included by suggestion. See for example: Overcapacity in Steel: China's Role in a Global Problem

Chinese Marxian Perspectives

A list of works (mostly articles) by actual Chinese Marxian political economists (including Orthodox economists who incorporate Marxian methods). Includes analyses of class, labour productivity, labour share/supply, prices, land reform and more:

Li Minqi: China's Changing Class Structure and National Income Distribution, 1952–2015

Do Labor Values Explain Chinese Prices? Evidence from China’s Input-Output Tables, 1990–2012 (with Han Cheng)

Qi Hao: The Labor Share Question in China

The State and Domestic Capitalists in China’s Economic Transition: From Great Compromise to Strained Alliance (with Isabel Nogueira)

The Impact of State-Owned Enterprises on China's Economic Growth (with David Kotz)

Fusheng Xie, Zhi Li & Xiaolu Kuang: The Reserve Army of Labor in China’s Economy, 1991–2015

Fusheng Xie, An Li & Zhongjin Li: Can the Socialist Market Economy in China Adhere to Socialism?

Ying Chen: The Myth of Hukou: Re-examining Hukou's Implications for China's Development Model

Zhun Xu: From Commune to Capitalism: the political economy of agrarian change in China.

For freely-available reading that relates to this book: The political economy of decollectivization in China and China's Grain Production

Li Zhongjin: Labor Process and the Social Structure of Accumulation in China (with Qi Hao)

Giovanni Arrighi in Beijing: Rethinking the Transformation of the Labor Supply in Rural China During the Reform Era (with Qi Hao

Putting Precarity Back to Production: A Case Study of Didi Kuaiche Drivers in the City of Nanjing, China (with Qi Hao)

Zhu Andong: The Dependence of China’s Economic Growth on Exports and Investment (with David Kotz)

Li Minqi, Zhang Yaozu, Xu Zhun, and Qi Hao: 资本的终结 (21世纪大众政治经济学) - The End of Capital: A Popular Political Economy Textbook for the 21st Century (completely in Chinese and probably off the table for most readers, but I thought I would include it as a Chinese Marxian economic textbook. Others can be found on Renmin U Press as well.)

Understanding CPC policy: thoughts and influences

I wanted to include this section to show writing by academics/theorists which has made a definite impact in government economic policy post-reform, or work which describes post-reform policy and provides scattered clues as to ideology (I figure that its inclusion at the end of the post implies the importance of first reading up on China's political economy). I've avoided work by big-name politicians as I figure we have quite enough of that.

If I find any further influential work I will add it (I am notably missing work conceptualizing Deng's southern tour and further thought on the 90s, for example). Sometimes I made a conscious choice to exclude writing, however; for instance, the work of Li Yining was incredibly influential on the government's 90s liberalizations (including the privatization of SOEs through a shareholding system) but who would willingly read that bourgeois drivel. I have also tried to avoid listing other influential liberals, but be aware that they have had their day.

Anyway:

(example of pre-reform influential thought)

Communist Party of China (1974): Fundamentals of Political Economy (also known as the "Shanghai Textbook"; I include it in this section to provide reference. For popular post-reform economics textbooks which show a shift in ideology, the reader can perhaps look at Peking U's school of economics)

Xue Muqiao: China's Socialist Economy (theory of the productive forces)

Wang Huning: Moving Toward a Political System with Higher Efficiency and More Democracy

Structure of the Contradiction in Japanese-American Relations in the 1990s

Wang Huning has been a prominent thinker for CPC ideology and governance ever since the 90s (he is now on the Politburo Standing Committee). These are but two articles I was able to find.

Wang Shaoguang and Hu Angang: 中国国家能力报告 - A Study of China's State Capacity (for a book inspired by this study in English see The Chinese Economy in Crisis, same authors)

These same authors also wrote a significant amount about China's uneven development (East/West, Urban/Rural etc). For example: The Political Economy of Uneven Development: The Case of China

Wen Tiejun: Select Works (note: these are a series of diverse essays from the late 90s up until 2019, compiled by me, which portray the theories/economics of Wen Tiejun and the greater school of "rural revitilization". Please excuse the pdf formatting; there is a mismatch of page sizes in places.)

Hu Angang: Economic and Social Transformation in China (I include Hu here on his own as an influential economist/thinker of the past ~25 years)

Cheng Enfu: A Theory of China’s ‘Miracle’: Eight Principles of Contemporary Chinese Political Economy (with Ding Xiaoqin)

Jin Huiming: Marxism and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

Note: This book is not economic (it's theoretical) nor is it influential (its an explanation of existing theory), but it can expound upon what the "sinicization of Marxism" entails for the post-reform CPC and as such is included here

Jiang Shigong: Philosophy and History: Interpreting the “Xi Jinping Era” (ignore the annoying translator preface; this is good for conceptualizing the "Chinese Dream" ideology)

Xie Fusheng, Ling Gao & Peiyu Xie: Supply-side structural reforms from the perspective of global production networks – based on the theoretical logic and empirical evidence of political economy

Some Thoughts

Once again, ignore if you just want the resources; this is just me thinking out loud.

Although this is an unfinished post here is a lot to read through here; I had even more to list but I decided today to just post this as it was getting fairly long (and hence more will be added later should I have ample time and motivation; no guarantees). In the interest of keeping this post more impartial than not, I will limit myself to a few general comments on the Chinese Marxian works (so please don't take my words here as a summary of all of the posted works; my comments here are not meant to reflect upon every book):

I still hold my belief that there is a struggle over the Chinese mode of production; a "line" which moves according to the strength of each opposing force - the Chinese capitalists (bourgeoisie/billionaires/elite etc) and the Chinese communists (proletariat/working class/socialists etc). The arena is the entire Chinese nation; enveloping the party, its ideology, domestic & international policy, law, academia etc. To this end, the "third path" advocated in some of the works linked above would appear to be the changing location of said line. The trajectory of CPC policy, and the Chinese mode of production, to me, should be understood this way.

And so it follows that the intellectual sphere follows this struggle. A wise person once said: "The worst advocates for Chinese Marxism are the Chinese Marxists themselves" (or something like that). Indeed, for there has been a fight with (and subjugation to) capitalism and capitalist ideology in the arena of ideas for almost 40 years (hence being incredibly diluted and mixed); only recently having more of a voice (closely tied with the strength of the working class). This is one possible explanation, but I should note that it is not the only possible one.

More specifically, the power of the proletarian movement dictates the ability of Marxist science to hold ground in the intellectual sphere; in this specific case, whether Marxists can be in the position to work and train new Marxian intellectuals. Hence we can expect further political economic work in this tradition (this mirrors how Soohaeng Kim was able to be in the position to supervise Marxist post-grads at Seoul National, for example). Not to say that academics should be the focal point of our study as communists, but their research can be valuable. Hence I have put such an emphasis on their work (besides the fact that they are most likely not widely read), and I believe the tradition should be followed with interest.

In summary of the whole post, I hope that plenty of reading material has been provided for postulating China's mode of production (and the ideologies which sprout from it and condition it). Each work should be read for what it is, and I think each can help increase our understanding. One final time, I would welcome (in fact I am looking for) additional works which would fit here so I might increase the value of the post.

Anyhow, that's enough talking. Happy reading!

Submitted October 14, 2020 at 06:00PM by TheReimMinister via reddit https://ift.tt/378gAI3

[bigyack-com]

Can Bergdorf Goodman Win the Barneys Race?

The bankruptcy and liquidation of Barneys New York, the cutting-edge department store critical to the career starts of many designers, and that was adored by a set of young, fashionable Manhattanites, has spurred hand-wringing throughout the shopping world.It has also unleashed a wave of high-stakes competition in Manhattan, now playing out against a backdrop of festooned holiday windows and the annual influx of tourists.“There will be a battle for that consumer,” said Terry Lundgren, the former chief executive of Macy’s and the Neiman Marcus Group. “Bergdorf’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks, the new Neiman Marcus and the new Nordstrom are all going to be after that business,” especially given the younger profile of Barneys shoppers.The winner in that tussle could very well be Bergdorf Goodman.“It’s an opportunity for Bergdorf’s to put their foot on the accelerator and really go after this consumer because of their uniqueness of only having one store,” Mr. Lundgren said.Whether it succeeds or not will be largely the responsibility of a new driver: Darcy Penick, who became president in September 2018. Along with Yumi Shin, the brand’s chief merchant since last year, and Linda Fargo, its fashion director, she completes a troika of power women at the helm of the heritage store.Previously the chief executive of Shopbop, an online retailer owned by Amazon, Ms. Penick, 41, has been charged with shepherding Bergdorf’s, which is owned by the Neiman Marcus Group, into the digital age in the midst of a radically changing landscape for New York department stores. Just this year, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus opened enormous splashy emporiums, while historic stores have vanished. Lord & Taylor closed its flagship Fifth Avenue store after more than 100 years; Henri Bendel shuttered in January. While Ms. Penick, who speaks in measured tones and has a blond pixie cut, aims to propel Bergdorf’s forward, her office is steeped in reminders of the store’s legacy. There is a letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to a Bergdorf’s associate about hats, and a photo of a young Michael Kors, who got his start at the store. Bobbi Brown’s 10 original lipstick shades are displayed in a frame. The walls are their own exhibit, papered in vibrant photographs of Bergdorf’s famous windows.“I appreciate that it’s complete sensory overload,” Ms. Penick, clad in a more serene black-and-white floral Prada dress, said of the décor. “For me, it’s thinking about digital translations of this.”Ms. Penick is part of a wave of new talent hired by Geoffroy van Raemdonck, the chief executive of Neiman Marcus since February 2018, who has been beating the drum of “transformation” and “modernization” for his company’s luxury retailers (Neiman’s, MyTheresa and Bergdorf’s).Among those, Bergdorf’s is “really at the tip of the pyramid in terms of luxury,” he said in a phone interview, pointing to its customers, sales associates, location (two facing stores next to the Plaza Hotel) and brands.“I was looking for a team that understands fashion, but beyond fashion — taste, and a taste for life and luxury,” Mr. van Raemdonck said. “And then it was very important to me that we expand beyond the world of the store on Fifth Avenue.”Under Ms. Penick, the brand just introduced its first real app (it tested a shoe-centric app long ago) and its website is undergoing an overhaul that will make it look more like a magazine, with new bells and whistles for viewing merchandise and a better reflection of its in-store selection. In fact, Bergdorf’s just started building its first team to “live and breathe” the dot.com, Ms. Penick said, after relying mainly on shared services with the broader Neiman Marcus Group.Some of those changes may seem elementary, for a retailer in 2019, but Ms. Penick pointed out, diplomatically, the internet isn’t that old compared to Bergdorf’s. “The reality is we have a brand, a store, a history that is 120 years old,” she said. “That is, what, six times how long the online environment has been around? And so it’s still in a nascent form.”Words like “modernization” and “transformation” can strike fear into the hearts of Bergdorf’s devotees, from consumers to designers to employees, whose loyalty has been cataloged in documentaries like “Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s.” (The title was based on a New Yorker cartoon, but the phrase was supposedly overheard at the store at least once.) Doormen, gilded revolving doors and chandeliers line the path to Bergdorf’s nine floors — six, if you exclude the ornate BG restaurant on No. 7, the event space on No. 8 and salon on No. 9. Handbags are displayed and often priced like museum pieces, “fur services” remain on offer, and the occasional penguin statue suddenly pops up next an artfully posed mannequin to take some of the stuffing out.Ron Frasch, chief executive of a namesake consulting firm and a former head of Bergdorf’s, has likened it to “the Willy Wonka of retail.” It was singular, he said, in that the chief executive could walk around the store daily and talk to its top customers and top sales associates. Clients were catered to in multiple ways: flown to fashion shows in Europe; allowed into the store at night so they didn’t have to be trailed by bodyguards during the day. “The challenge with Darcy and her team is how you respect that uniqueness and maintain it,” Mr. Frasch said. “The biggest challenge for anyone running Bergdorf’s is to not screw up the value of what Bergdorf’s means to its customer.”Despite her digital pedigree, however, Ms. Penick understands the allure of bricks and mortar.She began her career in Neiman’s training program in Dallas, after college at Wellesley, where she majored in peace and justice studies. While she is from St. Louis, she has been an East Coaster since her college days and currently lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. (Surely that adds a dose of hipness to the store?)She went on to become one of two buyers for Bergdorf’s fifth floor, responsible for contemporary women’s clothing brands like Vince, Joie and Juicy Couture. She repeatedly referred to a reaction she calls “the ‘Ooh, Bergdorf’s,’ which flies from people’s mouths when you say the brand.” Next came a short-lived clothing start-up focused on 30-to 50-year-old women, five years at Saks Fifth Avenue working on designer footwear, and Shopbop, where she entered Amazon’s orbit. (No, she never met Jeff Bezos, despite ample time in Seattle and at Shopbop’s headquarters in Madison, Wis.)Now, Ms. Penick said, she is merging the two “underpinnings” of her career in luxury stores and digital shopping.She is overseeing a staff of about 900, including some of retail’s best store associates: More than 60 percent of the salespeople bring in at least $1 million in annual revenue each, the company said. And the new app has a Wishlist tab that will eventually allow associates to build assortments for customers, which can be pulled into fitting rooms on visits or shopped for online. “We really liked the idea of building an environment that supported that exact same type of work online that we’re doing in store,” Ms. Penick said. “It isn’t technology for technology’s sake.”Some technology can be lighter fare, though. Bergdorf’s is creating a separate app tied to a new bar and restaurant — Goodman’s Bar — that is set to open in mid-December in the men’s store, across the street from the flagship. On a recent October morning, Ms. Penick shared a sampling from the restaurant, including avocado toast topped with Russ & Daughters lox, and pastries from Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery in the West Village.“If you’re shopping for a Kiton suit down away from the bar, we’ll give you the experience of ordering your favorite cocktail or learning about a new spirit,” Ms. Penick said. “We’ll bring that to you in your fitting room.”Bergdorf’s also started a series this spring called Designers Off Duty, which invited customers to spend time with designers in unusual settings. Phillip Lim, who recently published a cookbook, taught a cooking class for one event where clients made one of his mother’s recipes and then shared a meal with him. At another event, Jason Wu held a private sketching class with models wearing pieces from an upcoming collection. Then there’s the new initiative known as BG Radar, which showcases emerging designers in stores and online — just as Barneys used to do. Coincidence?While Mr. van Raemdonck acknowledged that “it’s never something great for anyone in the industry to see an established household name like Barneys be challenged and go through liquidation,” he said that he believed that Bergdorf’s would benefit from its exit.While Bergdorf’s does not disclose its sales, Mr. van Raemdonck said he expected that its business could increase significantly in coming years, noting that its digital revenue is not yet at the level of the Neiman’s chain, where online sales exceed 30 percent of total sales.“I do think that the growth of Bergdorf from a fashion standpoint is going to continue to accelerate,” he said. “We are at the beginning of our journey.” Read the full article

[biofunmy]

Can Bergdorf Goodman Win the Barneys Race?

The bankruptcy and liquidation of Barneys New York, the cutting-edge department store critical to the career starts of many designers, and that was adored by a set of young, fashionable Manhattanites, has spurred hand-wringing throughout the shopping world.

It has also unleashed a wave of high-stakes competition in Manhattan, now playing out against a backdrop of festooned holiday windows and the annual influx of tourists.

“There will be a battle for that consumer,” said Terry Lundgren, the former chief executive of Macy’s and the Neiman Marcus Group. “Bergdorf’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks, the new Neiman Marcus and the new Nordstrom are all going to be after that business,” especially given the younger profile of Barneys shoppers.

The winner in that tussle could very well be Bergdorf Goodman.

“It’s an opportunity for Bergdorf’s to put their foot on the accelerator and really go after this consumer because of their uniqueness of only having one store,” Mr. Lundgren said.

Whether it succeeds or not will be largely the responsibility of a new driver: Darcy Penick, who became president in September 2018. Along with Yumi Shin, the brand’s chief merchant since last year, and Linda Fargo, its fashion director, she completes a troika of power women at the helm of the heritage store.

Previously the chief executive of Shopbop, an online retailer owned by Amazon, Ms. Penick, 41, has been charged with shepherding Bergdorf’s, which is owned by the Neiman Marcus Group, into the digital age in the midst of a radically changing landscape for New York department stores.

Just this year, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus opened enormous splashy emporiums, while historic stores have vanished. Lord & Taylor closed its flagship Fifth Avenue store after more than 100 years; Henri Bendel shuttered in January.

While Ms. Penick, who speaks in measured tones and has a blond pixie cut, aims to propel Bergdorf’s forward, her office is steeped in reminders of the store’s legacy. There is a letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to a Bergdorf’s associate about hats, and a photo of a young Michael Kors, who got his start at the store.

Bobbi Brown’s 10 original lipstick shades are displayed in a frame. The walls are their own exhibit, papered in vibrant photographs of Bergdorf’s famous windows.

“I appreciate that it’s complete sensory overload,” Ms. Penick, clad in a more serene black-and-white floral Prada dress, said of the décor. “For me, it’s thinking about digital translations of this.”

Ms. Penick is part of a wave of new talent hired by Geoffroy van Raemdonck, the chief executive of Neiman Marcus since February 2018, who has been beating the drum of “transformation” and “modernization” for his company’s luxury retailers (Neiman’s, MyTheresa and Bergdorf’s).

Among those, Bergdorf’s is “really at the tip of the pyramid in terms of luxury,” he said in a phone interview, pointing to its customers, sales associates, location (two facing stores next to the Plaza Hotel) and brands.

“I was looking for a team that understands fashion, but beyond fashion — taste, and a taste for life and luxury,” Mr. van Raemdonck said. “And then it was very important to me that we expand beyond the world of the store on Fifth Avenue.”

Under Ms. Penick, the brand just introduced its first real app (it tested a shoe-centric app long ago) and its website is undergoing an overhaul that will make it look more like a magazine, with new bells and whistles for viewing merchandise and a better reflection of its in-store selection.

In fact, Bergdorf’s just started building its first team to “live and breathe” the dot.com, Ms. Penick said, after relying mainly on shared services with the broader Neiman Marcus Group.

Some of those changes may seem elementary, for a retailer in 2019, but Ms. Penick pointed out, diplomatically, the internet isn’t that old compared to Bergdorf’s. “The reality is we have a brand, a store, a history that is 120 years old,” she said. “That is, what, six times how long the online environment has been around? And so it’s still in a nascent form.”

Words like “modernization” and “transformation” can strike fear into the hearts of Bergdorf’s devotees, from consumers to designers to employees, whose loyalty has been cataloged in documentaries like “Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s.” (The title was based on a New Yorker cartoon, but the phrase was supposedly overheard at the store at least once.)

Doormen, gilded revolving doors and chandeliers line the path to Bergdorf’s nine floors — six, if you exclude the ornate BG restaurant on No. 7, the event space on No. 8 and salon on No. 9. Handbags are displayed and often priced like museum pieces, “fur services” remain on offer, and the occasional penguin statue suddenly pops up next an artfully posed mannequin to take some of the stuffing out.

Ron Frasch, chief executive of a namesake consulting firm and a former head of Bergdorf’s, has likened it to “the Willy Wonka of retail.”

It was singular, he said, in that the chief executive could walk around the store daily and talk to its top customers and top sales associates. Clients were catered to in multiple ways: flown to fashion shows in Europe; allowed into the store at night so they didn’t have to be trailed by bodyguards during the day.

“The challenge with Darcy and her team is how you respect that uniqueness and maintain it,” Mr. Frasch said. “The biggest challenge for anyone running Bergdorf’s is to not screw up the value of what Bergdorf’s means to its customer.”

Despite her digital pedigree, however, Ms. Penick understands the allure of bricks and mortar.

She began her career in Neiman’s training program in Dallas, after college at Wellesley, where she majored in peace and justice studies. While she is from St. Louis, she has been an East Coaster since her college days and currently lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. (Surely that adds a dose of hipness to the store?)

She went on to become one of two buyers for Bergdorf’s fifth floor, responsible for contemporary women’s clothing brands like Vince, Joie and Juicy Couture. She repeatedly referred to a reaction she calls “the ‘Ooh, Bergdorf’s,’ which flies from people’s mouths when you say the brand.”

Next came a short-lived clothing start-up focused on 30-to 50-year-old women, five years at Saks Fifth Avenue working on designer footwear, and Shopbop, where she entered Amazon’s orbit. (No, she never met Jeff Bezos, despite ample time in Seattle and at Shopbop’s headquarters in Madison, Wis.)

Now, Ms. Penick said, she is merging the two “underpinnings” of her career in luxury stores and digital shopping.

She is overseeing a staff of about 900, including some of retail’s best store associates: More than 60 percent of the salespeople bring in at least $1 million in annual revenue each, the company said. And the new app has a Wishlist tab that will eventually allow associates to build assortments for customers, which can be pulled into fitting rooms on visits or shopped for online.

“We really liked the idea of building an environment that supported that exact same type of work online that we’re doing in store,” Ms. Penick said. “It isn’t technology for technology’s sake.”

Some technology can be lighter fare, though. Bergdorf’s is creating a separate app tied to a new bar and restaurant — Goodman’s Bar — that is set to open in mid-December in the men’s store, across the street from the flagship.

On a recent October morning, Ms. Penick shared a sampling from the restaurant, including avocado toast topped with Russ & Daughters lox, and pastries from Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery in the West Village.

“If you’re shopping for a Kiton suit down away from the bar, we’ll give you the experience of ordering your favorite cocktail or learning about a new spirit,” Ms. Penick said. “We’ll bring that to you in your fitting room.”

Bergdorf’s also started a series this spring called Designers Off Duty, which invited customers to spend time with designers in unusual settings. Phillip Lim, who recently published a cookbook, taught a cooking class for one event where clients made one of his mother’s recipes and then shared a meal with him.

At another event, Jason Wu held a private sketching class with models wearing pieces from an upcoming collection.

Then there’s the new initiative known as BG Radar, which showcases emerging designers in stores and online — just as Barneys used to do. Coincidence?

While Mr. van Raemdonck acknowledged that “it’s never something great for anyone in the industry to see an established household name like Barneys be challenged and go through liquidation,” he said that he believed that Bergdorf’s would benefit from its exit.

While Bergdorf’s does not disclose its sales, Mr. van Raemdonck said he expected that its business could increase significantly in coming years, noting that its digital revenue is not yet at the level of the Neiman’s chain, where online sales exceed 30 percent of total sales.

“I do think that the growth of Bergdorf from a fashion standpoint is going to continue to accelerate,” he said.

“We are at the beginning of our journey.”

Sahred From Source link Fashion and Style

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2rFYACB via IFTTT