Barbra Streisand wore a copper Krizia blazer over a burgundy Henley shirt while attending a performance of “Mornings at Seven” at the Lyceum Theatre in September, 1980.

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Krizia is a luxury fashion brand that was founded in 1954 by Italian designer Mariuccia Mandelli (1925-2015). This was notably one of Italy’s first ready-to-wear houses. Mandelli began her adventures in fashion when she bought an old sewing machine and started creating clothes which she sold out of the back of her Fiat 500. She was dubbed “the godmother of classic Milanese fashion” by Newsweek in 1987 and was one of the first female designers to create a popular line of menswear. Mandelli is credited for having invented hot pants after debuting her extremely short shorts in 1971.¹ Krizia thrived over the next three decades and was bringing in $500 million per year in the 1990s. The brand was acquired by Marisfrolg Fashion Co. Ltd in 2014.²

Streisand’s Krizia copper velvet jacket featured a shawl collar, padded shoulders, puffed sleeves, and two patch pockets on each side. She layered a burgundy Henley shirt beneath it which created the perfect clash of masculine and feminine when paired with the lush jacket. Henley shirts are pullovers with no collar that have between two and four buttons. They got their name because they were the traditional uniform worn by rowers in the Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, a town in Oxfordshire, England. ³ They had a comeback in 1976s when Ralph Lauren saw a vintage version and was inspired to create his own modernized take on the original design.⁴ By the time Streisand wore hers in 1980 they had become popular for both men and women. Her Krizia jacket sold in March 2020 at the Julian’s Beverly Hills 90210 auction for $640.00. ⁵

Sources/Footnotes

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/fashion/mariuccia-mandelli-italian-fashion-designer-dies-at-90.html ↩︎
2. https://www.krizia.it/en/about-krizia/ ↩︎
3. https://www.heddels.com/2016/01/the-history-of-the-henley-shirt-rowing-menswear-staple/ ↩︎
4. https://www.barkersonline.co.nz/blog/the-history-of-the-henley ↩︎
5. https://bid.juliensauctions.com/lot-details/index/catalog/342/lot/134369/BARBRA-STREISAND-KRIZIA-BLAZER ↩︎