Most people don’t have malls in their basement, but then again, most people aren’t Barbra Streisand. Throughout her decades-long career in show business, the legendary singer and actress has garnered Oscars, Grammys and New York Times bestselling books, but her most prized possessions are her antiques.
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“I love to collect. I’m a collector,” Streisand told Gayle King on CBS Sunday Morning last year.
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This is what led Streisand to erect her own “little tiny mall” in the basement of her Malibu, Calif., mansion. Her faux avenue consists of several small storefronts displaying clothes, furniture, dolls and even a functioning candy shop.
Ahead, every question about Streisand’s own mall, answered.
Where is Barbra Streisand’s home?
Purchased for $16.5 million, Streisand’s 10,000 square foot oceanfront “dream home” features eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. Situated on three acres, her compound comprises multiple properties and four separate houses, including a barn. Today, the value of Streisand’s property is estimated at $100 million.
Why is there a mall in Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home?
In 2010, Streisand authored a book about remodeling her home titled “My Passion for Design.” In it, the Oscar winner correlates her love of stuff with childhood trauma.
“Sometimes I think it’s all connected to the loss of a parent,” she wrote. Streisand’s father, Emanuel, died in 1943 when she was only 15 months old. “Because you’d do anything to get that mother or father back. But you can’t. Yet with objects, there’s a possibility.”
Streisand was inspired to create her own mall after visiting the Winterthur Museum of American Decorative Arts, which features a display of early 19th-century shops.
“Seeing Winterthur’s indoor street, I thought how ingenious that was,” she said in a 2010 Harper’s Bazaar interview. “Instead of just storing my things in the basement, I can make a street of shops and display them.”
What’s in Barbra Streisand’s mall?
Streisand’s mall is lined with antique lanterns and features cobblestone floors.
Bee’s Doll Shop houses her collection of antique dolls, including a French automaton — dated to 1898 — that blows bubbles. Growing up in poverty, Streisand told King that she never had toys as a child.
“I didn’t have a doll, so I put hot water into a hot water bottle which felt like a real person,” she said.
While promoting her memoir “My Name is Barbra,” Streisand also invited talk show host Stephen Colbert to tour her basement. “None of my dolls are haunted,” she told the comedian, who cheekily came prepared with “Bed, Barb & Beyond” coupons.
Streisand has another “shop” dedicated to her vintage clothes, which she initially collected as an aspiring actress, as she couldn’t afford new ones.
“I feel right in something that had a life in it,” Streisand explained. “In other words, something from the past that felt like I was once there.”
Here, Streisand stores some of her favorite old looks featured in her mall clothing shop, including outfits she wore to meet President John F. Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1963, Streisand performed at the White House Correspondents Dinner when she was just 21.
Over a decade later, Streisand wore an embroidered velvet cape to meet Queen Elizabeth II at the premiere of the “Funny Girl” sequel, “Funny Lady.” This piece also sits in Streisand’s vintage closet.
Finally, Streisand has a Sweet Shop in her basement mall that’s stocked with popcorn, licorice and a frozen yogurt machine.
“American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy once spoke of visiting the fully functioning candy store after having dinner at Streisand’s house with Lady Gaga and John Travolta.
“She said, ‘Do you want to see the mall?’ And Gaga and I were out of that chair so fast,” Murphy said at Entertainment Weekly’s EW Fest in 2015. “We went down to the mall and spent an hour down there. She pulled out her collection of gowns from ‘Funny Girl’ and ‘Hello, Dolly!’ And then she said, ‘Do you want frozen yogurt?’ I could write a whole book about that night.”