Memories: Glenn Close and “The Art of the Character”

Or: We drove to Indiana to look at costumes.

Photo Credit: Matthew Maniaci

Way back in 2021, my wife and I found out about an exhibit at Indiana University Bloomington. It was a collection of costumes worn by Glenn Close, including a number of iconic pieces from several of her assorted movies like Dangerous Liaisons.

My wife and I are into costuming and historical clothes, and the chance to see a big ol’ collection of costume pieces from Glenn friggin’ Close was too good to turn down. It was especially neat because the exhibit allowed for 360-degree views of many of the costumes. Additionally, pictures were not only allowed but encouraged.

You can read more about the exhibit here, but I mostly want to talk about my experiences with it. For one, because we’re from the American Midwest, driving four-ish hours to spend a weekend visiting a museum exhibit is just sort of something that we do as a matter of course. So, the two of us and two of our friends packed up the car and took a road trip.

The drive was uneventful and we checked into what was likely the weirdest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. We travel with these friends somewhat regularly and we like to get suites with separate bedrooms and a shared living space, but this one was certainly an oddity.

For one, there was a shared bathroom. Pretty much every other suite that we’d been in had a bathroom for each bedroom, while this one had one off the shared space. It was also an odd thing — the toilet was absurdly low to the ground, and the shower was in a separate space with a separate door. Trying to wrangle the whole thing was a nightmare.

The room also had a combination DVD and VHS player, which is not something you see often this far into the 21st century. The TV was a flatscreen, at least.

However, we didn’t drive to Bloomington, Indiana for a hotel room — we went to see a bunch of costumes.

The exhibit itself was really nice and quite fun. As I said, there were full views with numerous angles of all of the costumes, and there was no glass to separate us from the clothes, so pictures were easy to get — and I got a lot of them. I think we spent at least an hour just walking around, taking pictures and looking at the amazing costumes from a bunch of iconic movies.

The workmanship on the costumes was amazing, too. It was clear to see how much time and effort had gone into the clothes that Glenn Close wore in her movies, even if only for one scene. The whole thing was amazing, and we were sad to leave.

Anyway, afterwards we ate at a restaurant called “Hoosier Seoulmate,” a Korean place that was highly rated. Initially, we planned to only take a picture of the sign because we loved the name, but we wound up eating there anyway, and the food was amazing. I don’t know if it’s still in business, but it was fantastic.

After dinner, we wound up going back to our room, watching Dangerous Liaisons and the Masters of the Universe He-Man reboot, and going to bed. It was a good day and a good trip overall.

Sometimes, you just have to go take a road trip to see something you want to see. The whole thing was only open for a few months, and the fact that we both found out about it and were able to take time to go see it was fortuitous.

I kinda regret that we don’t travel as much as we used to, but life happens, and I do my best to cherish the memories that I have from the places we’ve been. I’m sure there will be more opportunities to travel in the future, and I plan to take as many as I can.

Be well out there.

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