Barbra: A True Collector
In an age when young celebrities’ stylists compete to outdo each other on the red carpet with even more rare and spectacular vintage (or more so archive—a lot of it really isn’t that old), here is a little celebration of a woman whose stardom came after her deep knowledge and love for old clothes: Barbra Streisand. Wearing vintage and antique clothes when it definitely was not normal or accepted, Streisand upended the idea of what a young starlet should wear. With the release of “Live at Bon Soir,” a simply transcendent recording of a 20-year-old Barbra singing in November 1962, I thought I would share with you a 1963 interview with her, talking about her vintage collection. At just 21, Barbra had an incredible mastery of fashion history—learned through sifting through thrift stores and junk shops. That laser-sharp attention to detail and desire to create worlds, which can be so clearly seen in all her homes, was completely in evidence already.
All text in blocks is from Women’s Wear Daily, October 24, 1963; written by Etta Froio. While Women’s Wear had Tony Palmieri do a large photoshoot of Barbra trying on her vintage clothes, they were really more like studies rather than finished images. Only four of his photos were used— three cropped and as a border to the spread, the other inset in an illustration. The spread’s main focus was three illustrations by Kenneth Paul Block based on Palmieri’s photos. The images by Palmieri are now available on Getty, so I have included them throughout.
BROADWAY AND S. A. HAVE FLIPPED OVER THE HOTTEST PROPERTY IN SHOW BUSINESS TODAY. Bill Blass says, "She's an absolute inspiration. Aside from her obvious talent, she has a most unique and fresh fashion approach." Norman Norell thinks "she's great. She's new… fresh… both in talent and in fashion… doesn't follow anything slavish. She's a great kid."
The great kid that's rocked the country is Barbra Streisand… the kid who stole the show a few seasons ago as Miss Marmelstein in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale"… the same kid (she's 21 now) who's going back for seconds, playing Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl," due on Broadway in February.
"Most reporters never mention my clothes and, if they do, they play me up as a kook. It's great to talk about fashion seriously and not have to answer all those stupid questions about how I got started and where I'm from, etcetera.”
"I HAVE THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF OLD CLOTHES… paid from $3.50 to $7.50 for them. When I first started in show business, I couldn't afford clothes so I went to thrift shops. I even got a Fabiani at a shop in New York… It's called the Two Time, I think. So what if somebody else wore them… I don't care. Probably if they could afford those clothes, they were clean.”
In a Seventeen interview that year, she divulged that she always wore an old-fashioned garter over her knee. Barbra also opened up about her Victorian mourning ring: “I love to buy old things. This ring I’m wearing is something I love. It has these little pearls and a lock of hair. I never saw a lock of hair braided before. I buy all my furniture secondhand. I love antiques.”
"My first professional appearance was at the Bon Soir. I had nothing to wear except a sequined lace and velvet top from the early 1900s. I wore it with a long velvet skirt and old silk pumps (Everyone calls them my Minnie Mouse shoes). People thought I was weird. But, I felt I was wearing something that should be shown to the world.”
In the New York Times piece on “Live at Bon Soir,” Streisand again recollects that first look: “I always bought antique clothes,” she said, “because I thought they were so beautiful. I admired the craftsmanship… Opening night, I wore a black, high-necked velvet beaded top. I had my tailor make me a little black velvet skirt that went with that top. But I didn’t know you’re not supposed to dress like that. I didn’t know that when you sing in a nightclub, you’re supposed to have kind of a gown or something elegant, made out of fabulous silks or satins.”
"The late twenties to the mid-thirties… that's the period I like most. The clothes were the end… very sexy and fluid… just touching the body at certain areas. Here you see the body, there you don't, then there it is again. It's the easiest way to dress… keeping to natural lines. I love things that just wrap or hang.
"Those limp old velvets and lames from the twenties are the greatest. I recently did a show at Lake Tahoe and wore an old cut velvet gown that looks like that swirly stuff… yes, that's it, moire. Liberace flipped. I love lace, too… especially at the hands. Not that stiff, scratchy kind that's around today… but the old French laces are beautiful.”
According to Barbra’s 2010 book My Passion For Design, this “violet silk velvet dress is one of the first antique pieces I ever bought.” She obviously loved this loose velvet smock deeply as she showed it off to WWD and had previously worn it for a 1962 photoshoot with Duane Michals—listen to my interview with Duane here.
"WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE SOME OF MY THINGS? They're all packed away in a box called antiques.” Barbra has just moved to a Central Park West duplex with husband Elliot Gould (her leading man in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale.") "As you can see, we don't have any furniture yet… just a bed and a few chairs. My maid couldn't come today or else we could have had tea or something—on the floor.”
"This is my most treasured possession, a honey-colored caracul coat with a matching fox collar… I bought it for $10. Look at the lining… all embroidered with velvet ribbons. Its really the end. Two years ago this was my dress coat. I'm going to have it copied in dark brown Russian broadtail with a black-tipped brown fox collar… and maybe in black seal with mink. I paid $30 for this monkey fur jacket… I may have it cut down or I can wear it like this… just sort of dripping off my shoulders. And look at this velvet dress… you can't find fabric like this anymore. The dress just sort of hangs and blouses here. It's the wildest.”
The dress she references in the quote above is the purple velvet one I discuss earlier.
"I ALSO HAVE A COLLECTION OF OLD SHOES from the twenties… and buckles, too. These beaded leather ones are great. I wore them to the theatre the other night with a black velvet suit. It's in my contract that I can have custom made shoes. I don't care about the money… just the shoes.”
"Now, I have many of these old clothes adapted or copied… like this gray wool crepe all cut on the bias and with no back. I wear it with this matching stole trimmed with ostrich and gray lizard shoes. I have the same dress long… to the floor… in a dull, dull beigey pink crepe. I even made a necklace to go with it. You should have seen me stringing those beads!”
“I go to museums to get ideas for dresses… and I'm always searching thrift shops everyplace I go. Then I often sketch my ideas. It's not that I'm creative… It's just that I've had to suffice with simple things and it makes me look around. A few department stores have approached me…. they'd like to use my name and designs. It would have to be a well made, high-priced line. I think I almost might do it.”
"I HATE TO SHOP IN DEPARTMENT STORES. You see all that stuff and buy a lot of things you don't really need. I did some shopping at I. Magnin when I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. Miss Rose is great… I love her (She's the sportswear buyer at Magnin). I bought some Geist & Geist knit tops and pants. No, I don't really like to wear pants except dungarees and bell bottoms. I prefer lingerie and lounging things like culottes… or something like this to wear at-home.” (She was wearing a long wool knit Empire dress with navy and red striped bodice… a recent purchase in Las Vegas.)
"I have this awful stomach that pops out and I like to be comfortable when I sing. That's why I wear a lot of Empire dresses. You don't have to wear all those underthings that hold you in. Bill Blass loves my stomach. He told me he'd like to design some clothes around it. I own one of his dresses… a gold matelasse paisley… I had the neckline lowered and added longer sleeves. I think the bosom should be emphasized… but natural.”
“I met Norman Norell when I was appearing in Florida. He loved the dress I was wearing… a black crepe Empire culotte dress with ostrich around the hem. His clothes are beautiful but so expensive. I love Harold Goldstein's things too. I saw one of his dresses in Bloomingdale's and wanted to wear it on a television show I was doing that same night. I called him to get one in my size and told him why I needed it fast. I don't think he believed me… but, I got the dress.”
"Irene Sharaff is doing the costumes for 'Funny Girl.' I want everything to be authentic… I bought some Spanish lace and real silk stockings which I might wear in the show.”
"LORENZ HART ONCE LIVED IN THIS APARTMENT… it has a 55-foot terrace and a stairway so I can make an entrance. I used to live in an old railroad flat over on Third Avenue… there were no closets so I had to just throw my clothes over the furniture. Now, I'm devoting a whole room to my old clothes. They'll all be hanging on racks… my beaded bags will be hung on the walls… and I'm going to have cases for jewelry and shoes and things. There'll be a wooden floor, a pot-belly stove and an old captain's desk. It will be just like a little store… but, I'm the only one who can shop there.”
Streisand truly achieved her wish for her own store with the street of shops she created in the basement of her barn in Malibu in the early 2000s. While Streisand later said that a visit to Winterthur inspired this decision ("Seeing Winterthur's indoor street, I thought how ingenious that was. Instead of just storing my things in the basement, I can make a street of shops and display them”), the quote above reveals that she had been thinking of ways to display her collection as a personal shop for decades. She simply took it to the next level—instead of displaying the day-to-day clothes she wears in a shop, Streisand expanded it to be a way to show off all of her collections, costumes and provide amusement to guests. From Harper’s Bazaar: “Along a cobblestone-paved, antique-lantern-lit "street," a collection of turn-of-the-last-century-style shops beckons "customers" to step inside. Traffic is heaviest during screening parties, when the Sweet Shop does brisk business dispensing licorice, frozen yogurt, and popcorn to guests. Before going out to a dinner party or a friend's birthday, Streisand likes to duck into the Gift Shoppe to pick up a present—a soap dish or a pair of candlesticks—and tie it up with pretty ribbons at the wrapping table. Other emporiums include the Antique Shop, the Antique Clothes Shop, and Bee's Doll Shop… While most of the stores offer stock that comes and goes, the Antique Clothes Shop is truly a museum. Paneled in lavender-painted boiserie, it displays some of the star's most famous costumes…”
OMG, did you see the one man play ‘Buyer and Cellar’? It’s a scream - the playwright ‘worked’ as the salesperson at Barbra’s basement mall; he describes how bizarre it was haggling with her over the prices of objects she already owned!
Amazing that Barbra continues to have career moments - she’s up again with her first recordings. Whoever manages her career (prob herself) is brilliant.