Barbra Streisand “Too Old to Care” If People Think She Dresses Too Sexy at 81
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At 81 years old, Barbra Streisand is done caring what other people think about what she wears. In an interview with The New York Times published on Dec. 25, Streisand opened up about her history with style in what the newspaper reports is her first interview “to be focused solely on fashion.” The singer, actor, and director talked about how she downplayed her sexuality when she was younger, but now expresses herself however she sees fit. Streisand thinks that no one should be limited by their age when it comes to their style choices.
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In the interview with the NYT and in her recently released memoir My Name Is Barbra , Streisand shares that she didn’t feel attractive as an up-and-coming entertainer. This affected the way she dressed.
“No one would have looked at me and thought, ‘That girl should be a movie star,’” she writes in her book (via the NYT ). “I have a small head, a crooked nose, my mouth is too big, and my eyes are too small. Did I even think I was sexy? No.”
Streisand told the newspaper that she developed a signature style early on.
“I didn’t relate to the conventional kind of gown most nightclub singers wore,” she told the NYT . “Instead, I took a men’s wear fabric—a black-and-white herringbone tweed—and designed a vest, which I wore with a white chiffon blouse and a matching tweed skirt, floor-length with a slit up the side, and lined in red. I’ve been wearing a version of that suit ever since.”
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Now, however, she feels free to be more expressive with her style choices.
“People should express themselves and wear whatever they feel on any given day. And that has nothing to do with age,” she said.
Of appearing sexy, she added, “I was too afraid to be seen that way at that time. Now I’m too old to care.”
Streisand also referenced a critique she received for the outfit she wore to sing at Bill Clinton’s 1993 presidential inauguration gala. She wrote a pinstripe skirt suit with a low-cut vest and slitted skirt, which a NYT critic said sent a “disturbing signal” and a “coy mixed message.”
“I thought that writer was reading a lot into that outfit, and it said more about her than about me,” Streisand said in the new interview. “Like I wrote in my book, ‘Why can’t women be accomplished and attractive, strong and sensitive, intelligent and sensual?’”
RELATED: Barbra Streisand Says Marlon Brando Propositioned Her With His Wife in the Next Room .
Streisand also shared with the publication that it was her idea to wear just a shirt and no pants for her 2016 W magazine cover. The memorable photo features the EGOT winner wearing heels, a white button-up shirt, and a black tie with a suit jacket tossed over her shoulder. Her legs are covered only in sheer tights.
In the interview for the magazine, she spoke about one of her most famous outfits : the sheer matching pants and top she wore when she accepted her Best Actress Oscar for Funny Girl in 1969.
“I had no idea that when the lights hit that outfit, it would become transparent!” she said. “I wanted a white collar and cuffs, which it had, and I wore my hair under my chin, because I thought to myself, I’m going to win two Oscars in my lifetime, and I’ll be more conservative next time.”
Streisand won her second Oscar—Best Original Song for “Evergreen” from A Star Is Born —in 1977. That time, she wore a bronze pleated gown with a capelet.
Barbra Streisand Says Marlon Brando Propositioned Her With His Wife in the Next Room
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If her upcoming memoir clocking in at 992 pages is any indication, Barbra Streisand has a lot of stories to tell. One particularly scandalous one involves late actor Marlon Brando , who became a friend of the star. According to Streisand’s book, Brando once propositioned her while his wife was in the very next room. The Oscar-winner turned him down, but it wasn’t the end of their relationship. It also wasn’t the last time that he hit on her.
Read on to find out more about Streisand and Brando’s relationship, which traces back to her crush on him before they ever met.
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Streisand was interviewed by Vanity Fair ahead of the Nov. 7 release of her memoir, My Name Is Barbra . The profile recaps a chapter of the book titled “Brando,” in which Streisand writes that the actor asked her to have sex with him while they were at a party in 1966. At the time, she would have been 24 while Brando was 42.
According to the book, Brando told Streisand, “I’d like to [expletive] you” while his wife was in an adjoining room. (The article does not state which wife was present, however. Brando had overlapping marriages with Movita Castaneda and Tarita Teriipaia , though the Castaneda marriage was later annulled.)
RELATED: Elizabeth Taylor’s Affair With This Actor Was So Scandalous, the Vatican Got Involved .
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According to her book, Streisand and Brando became friends and stayed that way until his death in 2004. The now-81-year-old also writes that after Brando saw the 1968 film adaptation of Funny Girl , he called her and said, “You were really good, but you run funny.” Vanity Fair ‘s Radhika Jones told Streisand that “Brando” is “one of the wilder chapters [she’s] ever encountered in literature.” The author responded, “Well, he’s Marlon Brando!”
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During a 2012 appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight , Streisand told another story about spending time with Brando. This one was about a road trip they took together in the ’70s.
“[Brando] wanted to take me to the desert, to see the wildflowers,” she said, adding that he said he wanted to “sleep over in a ghost town.”
Streisand said that she rejected his advances. “I was such a nice Jewish girl that I just said, ‘Marlon, I can’t stay overnight with you. I’ll go with you for the day.’” Again, she added that they remained friends and would talk on the phone “for hours and hours.”
Evidence of Streisand and Brando’s friendship was shared by John Travolta in on Instagram in 2020 . In a “flashback Friday” post, Travolta shared a photo of himself, his late wife Kelly Preston , Streisand, her husband James Brolin , Brando, and others. In the picture, Streisand sits on Brando’s lap. Travolta wrote in the caption, “A special party for Marlon Brando at Barbra Streisand’s house #FBF.” He did not specify what year the photo was taken.
Long before they ever met, Brando became Streisand’s celebrity crush after she saw him in 1955’s Guys and Dolls .
“Since I was 13, Marlon Brando was my favorite. I saw him in Guys and Dolls —and that was it,” she told W magazine in 2016. “Interestingly, there was a period of 27 years when I didn’t sing in public, because of stage fright, and when I finally did, I created a scenario in which I sang ‘I’ll Know’ with Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls . I put myself in his movie! I invited Brando to my house to see the piece, and he made me take him through my entire show. We then watched a movie together. It was wonderful: He was my idol, my biggest crush.”
“I’ll Know” is a song from the Guys and Dolls . When Streisand performed the song at Madison Square Garden for her 1994 live album The Concert , she spoke about Brando and the film before singing it.
“This friend of mine named Barbara Sankell , who knew that I wanted to be an actress told me about this actor named Marlon Brando, who was in a movie called Guys and Dolls , which I also didn’t know was from a Broadway play. And so I went to see it, and it was truly a life-altering experience seeing Marlon Brando for the first time. It was the only movie that I ever sat through twice—just to get to see him again and to have another Mello Roll. Anyway, I’ll never forget this song.”
