When Barneys NY opened the elegant revolving doors of its 10-story French limestone flagship store at 660 Madison Avenue in 1993, it established a retail landmark that soon came to be synonymous with a certain kind of New York style.

Shoppers thronged as much to imbibe the atmosphere of insider luxury as to buy the newest, most cutting-edge brands. Designers felt that if they made it onto Barney’s racks, they had been given a stamp of creative credibility that telegraphed to the world they had arrived.

Now, that store is fighting for its future and reputation in a fraught retail environment ravaged by skyrocketing rents and the growth of e-commerce, where former shopping thoroughfares are spotted with empty storefronts and the very premise of the department store is being questioned.

Barneys has hired financial and legal advisers, including the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, the consultancy MII Partners and the investment bank Houlihan Lokey, to help it consider its options, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision had been made. The possibilities for Barneys include filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, renegotiating leases — not just of its Madison Avenue flagship, but potentially of other branches in its 22-store network — and taking on a strategic investor that can inject new capital.