Less than a decade after Barneys New York emerged from bankruptcy, two overseas companies are competing with megamillion-dollar cash bids to purchase the storied purveyor of five-figure ball gowns and $300 blue jeans.

A Japanese clothing retailer, Fast Retailing Co., this week bid $900 million to acquire Barneys from Jones Apparel Group. The unsolicited offer came about two weeks after Barneys’s parent company agreed to sell the luxury retailer for $825 million to a Dubai-based private equity firm, Istithmar. The acceptance of either bid ensures a windfall for Jones Apparel, which purchased Barneys for about $400 million in 2004.

“I think they were very lucky,” a former chief executive of Barneys, Gene Pressman, said of the timing of Jones Apparel’s acquisition of Barneys. “They fell into a very upbeat market, which has gone up considerably.”

Mr. Pressman, whose grandfather, Barney Pressman, in 1923 founded Barneys with money earned from selling his wife’s engagement ring, credited Jones Apparel for its willingness to invest in store expansion amid a booming luxury market.

Barneys started as a discount men’s apparel store in Chelsea and has grown into one of the most recognizable luxury labels in the world.
In the nearly three years since Jones Apparel scooped up Barneys, it has increased the number of Barneys’ more casual, contemporary CO-OP stores to 14 from four. It also opened Barneys New York locations in Boston and Dallas, and plans to inaugurate stores in Las Vegas and San Francisco by the end of the year, a Barneys spokesman has said.

This growth represents a major turnaround for the specialty retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996 and closed several stores in the years that followed. A dispute with a former Japan-based business partner, the Isetan Company, is said to have contributed to Barneys’ financial woes.

In a telephone interview with The New York Sun, Mr. Pressman said overspending on the creation of Barneys’ 230,000-square-foot Madison Avenue store and the recession of the early 1990s were also factors that led to the company’s downturn.

Even at its low point, Barneys shoppers remained loyal to the retailer, according to Mr. Pressman, who is co-author of a book about Barneys’ bankruptcy and subsequent recovery, “Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Marketplace” (Atria, 2007). “Our family built a culture, predicated on finding merchandise that you cannot find anywhere else, and developing new, upcoming talent,” he said. “It built a strong legacy, and our customers never abandoned us based on the bankruptcy.”

Mr. Pressman, who along with his brother, Robert Pressman, stepped down as the company’s chief executives in 1998, said whoever emerges as the new owner of Barneys should be dedicated to the creative enterprise — not just the bottom line. “As great as the business is doing, it’s definitely lost some of its creativity and become a lot more commercial in a sense,” he told the Sun. “There’s a danger of Barneys falling into a high-style, cookie-cutter situation, and that would be the kiss of death.”

A retail analyst with Deloitte, Richard Giss, said he is not surprised that Jones Apparel is fielding multiple bids for Barneys. “The label carries a certain cachet, and the upper end of the retail market has faired much better than other areas,” he said. “When you have a marquee name like Barneys, and you’ve turned it around, it makes it pretty appealing.”

Under new ownership, Barneys must continue to demonstrate its relevance to its fashion-forward, quality-conscious shoppers, Mr. Giss said. “Companies need to look out for its customers, not for other companies,” he said. “It’s when they try to emulate someone else that when there’s trouble.”

A source familiar with the Fast Retailing bid said the Japanese company has been looking for a foothold in the luxury market, and since last fall has expressed interest in acquiring Barneys. Fast Retailing is the parent company of UNIQLO, which opened its first American location last fall in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhoods. The company’s other apparel holdings include Theory, Princesse Tam Tam, and Comptoir des Cotonniers.

Even as Jones Apparel mulls the new offer, its purchase agreement with Istithmar — the investment company of Dubai’s ruling family — remains in effect. Barneys’ parent company is permitted to entertain third-party offers for Barneys through late July, according to the terms of the agreement.

Should Jones Apparel call off the deal prior to July 22, it would owe Istithmar $20.6 million. After that date, the payout climbs to $22.7 million.