Glenn Close Costume Exhibit in Savannah Showcases “The Art of the Character”

View screen-used costumes from the actress’ impressive filmography at the Jepson Center in Savannah now through Feb. 15.

Story by Carolyn Males

There’s a theory called Enclothed Cognition that talks about the effect of wearing a particular type of clothing — a doctor’s white coat, for example — has on the wearer. But as we all now, it’s not only how one feels moving through the world in a particular garment, it’s also the impact that doing so has on others.

Glenn Close understands just how important costuming is for creating a living, breathing character on screen and stage. She knows that slipping into a particular piece of clothing may bring forth emotions, expectations and bodily reactions, not only from the actor portraying a character but from those sharing a scene — and, in the end, on those watching in the audience

Close began collecting her costumes shortly after playing nurse Jenny Fields, the resolute feminist mother of Garp (Robin Williams), in The World According to Garp in 1982. She had been thinking about all the hours she spent in fittings, collaborating with costume designers, followed by the days and weeks artisans spent crafting these garments and accessories. But then once a film was completed, the studios would discard or sell the costumes. A whole history of costume design was being lost, along with opportunities for others to learn from what these talented artists had created. So in 2017 she donated her 800-piece collection of costumes to the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection in the School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University. Three years later the public got its first look when the University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art presented a selection of her archive.

Now we too can get a behind-the-scenes view at the role costuming played in 12 of her movies at The Art of the Character: Highlights from the Glenn Close Costume Collection, which runs through Feb. 15 at the Jepson Center in Savannah. Here in the museum’s spacious galleries, we can examine the detail and workmanship that goes into each piece up close and learn about the collaborative process that inspired these brilliant designs.

Dangerous Liasons

The sumptuous gowns Close wears as the Marquise de Merteuil appear as calculated as her scheming and as structured as her strategy to manipulate the targets of her desires and vengeance in 18th-century France, a society where women wielded little power. That voluminous icy blue silk gown, with its big bows and serpentine trails of pink roses, dazzles much as the real-life Madame de Pompadour must have when she glided through the mirrored halls of Versailles. The caged and laced muslin panniers Close’s Marquise laces herself into beneath her skirts suggest both societal strictures and her own self-control and untouchability. James Acheson won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Liaison’s character-revealing wardrobes.

The Lion in Winter

When Close as Eleanor of Aquitaine girds herself in designer Consolata Boyle’s sleek armor, we see a bit of “stage magic.” Crafted with shiny plastic sequins to suggest metal, the costume projects the queen’s inner strength. Yet noting that band of beaded flowers below her waist, we can’t help but feel she’s protecting her vulnerability as she faces off with husband Henry II over his imprisonment of their three sons.

Stepford Wives

For her turn as Claire Wellington, a woman determined to embody the perfect mate, Close dons designer Ann Roth’s hyper-feminine “armor” of pastels, flowery full skirts trimmed with rickrack or lace and gingham capris. There’s so much “sugar” here that one comes away with one’s teeth hurting … which is just the point.

Fatal Attraction

Who wouldn’t be intimidated by seeing homewrecker Alex Forrest in her big black leather coat (in a wardrobe by designer Ellen Mirojnick) as she gleefully plots to upend her lover’s marriage by pouring acid on his car and swooping up his daughter for a “fun” day at the amusement park? Think of all the space she takes up in with those wide shoulders, vaguely reminiscent of a motorcycle gang babe. No wonder errant husband Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is scared.

The Met Gala Gown

Being a Hollywood star can entail fantasies of a different sort. Before leaving, step into the back gallery where flashbulbs from paparazzi greet you (albeit on a video) just as if you’d stepped onto the red carpet. Here you’ll see the billowing blue gown with a sweeping train and hand-embroidered crystal swag necklace that Close wore for the 2025 Met Gala. Erdem’s Karl Lagerfeld-inspired creation may not be for a screen role, but one could say it is a “costume” fitting for an actor who has garnered eight Academy Award nominations, three Tonys, three Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award. (It should be noted here, lest someone consider emulating the recent Louvre robbery, that all these jewels in the collection are faux. Faux but fabulous.)

101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians

DEC 25 136-140 Culture-GlenCloseExhibit.indd

Oh, was there ever a more fashion-obsessed meanie than Cruella de Vil? To convey this operatic villainess with her manic obsession for animal fur, designer Anthony Powell created a collection of outfits and accessories that illustrate her transition from fashion designer (straight lines, leather and “fur”) to madwoman, then on to her reformation and enlightenment (softer lines and recycled plastic details in place of fur), back to evil. The “killer heels” on display in a side case says it all, with their metal spikes and encircling wires.

Art of the Character film series

When: Dec. 27, Feb. 13

Where: Jepson Center, Savannah

101 Dalmatians (1996): 2 p.m., Dec. 27

Fatal Attraction (1987): 6 p.m., Feb. 13

Tickets: Adults $10; Children $5, members free. Telfair.org, 912-790-8800.