Fred Pressman

Fred Pressman, the man who transformed Barneys New York from a men's discount suit shop into a repository of cutting-edge designer fashions, in July 1996 at his home in Harrison. He was 73. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, said his wife, Phyllis. Mr. Pressman took the helm of Barneys in the late 1950s from his father, Barney Pressman. Fred Pressman slowly transformed the store from a salty discount house that sold roast beef sandwiches in its pub to a purveyor of Italian designers with a cafe serving Perrier and light salads. Fred Pressman's young sons, Gene and Bob, joined the business in the 1970s, and they further advanced the store into a house of urban chic where wealthy hipsters could take pleasure in a $60 bath towel. An entire women's floor was added in 1981, with the same sensibility. Mr. Pressman was born in New York, and attended Rutgers University before enlisting in the Army. He joined the family store in 1946. In the 1960s, long before ironic advertising became mainstream, Mr. Pressman helped conceive a newspaper advertising campaign that featured men in their underwear cleaning their Barneys wash-and-wear suits in a laundromat. In addition to his wife, Phyllis, he is survived by his sons, Bob of Greenwich, Conn., and Gene of Larchmont; his daughters, Elizabeth, of Rye, N.Y., and Nancy, of Harrison, and 10 grandchildren.