THE SIGNS WERE THERE TO BE READ, even if at first they didn't make a lot of what is usually thought of as sense. There was, yeah, that white Bronco in Brentwood. And the black Jeep that Tim Robbins, consummate Hollywood dealmaking lizard, drove in The Player. And Arnold's Hummer. Not a normal car among them.
West Coast automotive analyst Christopher Cedergren read the signs two years ago on Rodeo Drive, at the opening of a shrieks-with-chic Barneys boutique. His epiphany was outside the store, not inside. Instead of Bentley Turbos, Mercedes S-class sedans and the usual Porsches and Lamborghinis, so...