Barneys opening to draw 'real celebrities'
Are you going?
That's the question in heavy play as Boston primps and preps for tonight's opening of the new Barneys store at Copley Place. The official head count for the gala is 400, culled mostly from loyal customers of Barneys' Chestnut Hill store.
How many actual invitees, wannabes, and don't-you-know-who-I-ams plan on showing up? Your guess is as good as Pop!'s. (Who, by the way, is not on the guest list. Darn it.)
Based on reports of cellphone and e-mail chatter, however, plus factoring in time of season (post-Oscar, pre-March Madness) and leisure-time competition (Is ''Crash" still playing in theaters?), it's possible that an upscale clothing-store opening -- ordinarily not the stuff of velvet-rope dreams -- might be the hottest ticket since the Stones rolled out of here on their way to Rio.
''We'd like to accommodate everyone, but obviously we can't," says Simon Doonan, Barneys' creative director. ''The word I'm getting is, everyone in Boston wants to come."
Doonan, who designs the Manhattan store's to-die-for window displays, will be on hand personally to escort guests around the two-story, 45,000-square-foot store, which occupies the space once housing a movie complex and food court. Party plans include a cocktail hour and buffet supper (held on the store's perimeter, so guests don't spill crab dip on the Pradas) with entertainment provided by disco kings The O'Jays, of ''Love Train" fame.
Much as party organizers would love to squeeze more people in, Doonan says, ''Out of respect for the Boston Fire Department, we won't." This is no Hollywood movie premiere, either, he adds, where the gawk factor guarantees a red-carpet crowd. ''It's more like we're throwing a big party in a town where we already have some relatives," Doonan says. ''The emphasis isn't on local luminaries but on our customers, the real celebrities."
One such VIP is restaurateur Michela Larson, a Barneys loyalist who received her invitation by mail a few weeks ago. Larson theorizes that the restricted guest list, coupled with the store's image as a fun, hip, celeb-friendly retailer, makes tonight's event more appealing than the average shop-for-Manolo-Blahniks-here deal, with or without hors d'oeuvres.
''I was surprised when I got my invitation, but now everyone wants to be my date," says Larson with a laugh. ''Honestly, I thought I'd be one of thousands. But I guess I'm not." Once word circulated among the Hub's hard-core party crowd, Larson reports, ''Everyone started asking, 'Are you going?' "
Barneys, which opened in Manhattan in 1923, has branded itself a ''celebrity hangout" (as the company website modestly puts it) for the past couple of decades, providing a backdrop for episodes of ''Sex in the City," ''Will & Grace," and other hit shows. It's been said that you're not a genuine political or show-biz celebrity until your likeness has appeared in one of Barneys' window displays. Does Boston feel the buzz? Apparently it does.
With calls and e-mails pouring in requesting party tickets, says Barneys VP of publicity Dawn Brown, ''We deal with them on a case-by-case basis." So what happens tonight if you show up sans invite? ''Tell people not to throw things at me, please," says Brown anxiously.
JOSEPH P. KAHN 
