Glenn Close Walks the Red Carpet With This Season’s Hottest Accessory: Another Glenn Close
RuPaul’s Drag Race has never done a “Night of 1000 Glenn Closes” episode, which is a shame. Close’s filmography has enough camp-classic characters to fill an entire runway: Cruella De Vil (of course), bunny-boiling Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction, her Tony-winning version of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Dangerous Liaison’s deliciously wicked Marquise de Merteuil, the unhinged grandmother from Lee Daniels’s The Deliverance, and her upcoming over-the-top role as Drusilla Sickle in the next Hunger Games movie. But none of those characters are quite as iconic as Close herself. Performance artist and drag icon Alexis Stone seems to know that. He turned himself into Glenn Close to walk the red carpet for the New York City premiere of All’s Fair.
Close and Stone took to the red carpet in matching versions of a shredded-hem skirtsuit from Matières Fécales’s spring 2027 collection. Padded shoulders formed a striking silhouette. Black knee-high leather boots and matching gloves added graphic appeal, but really the main attraction here was Stone’s prosthetic makeup.
Stone, a British drag queen and SFX makeup artist, first gained fame on Instagram, but in recent years has become a frequent front-row presence at fashion week, showing up in drag as dozens of camp icons and famous characters. He’s done everyone from Mrs. Doubtfire to Lana Del Rey, Miranda Priestly, and Joan Rivers. He’s even done a version of Close before, turning into Cruella De Vil for Balenciaga’s spring 2024 runway show.
Rarely, though, has Stone come face-to-face with his inspiration. The premiere of All’s Fair’s second season was certainly an apt occasion. The first go-around of the Kim Kardashian-starring, Ryan Murphy-produced legal drama was a ratings hit for Hulu, but was met with scathing reviews from critics (“Fascinatingly, incomprehensibly, existentially terrible,” wrote The Guardian). Apparently, all involved decided to regroup and accept the fact that they aren’t exactly making Shakespeare. “Last season, we thought we were serious. We didn’t know that we were a comedy,” Kardashian recently told Variety. “So this season, we really lean in and we go for it. It’s campier than ever.”
The red carpet seems to have leaned into camp as well. While the CFDA Awards attracted a more traditionally fashionable crowd at the Museum of Natural History on Monday night, the All’s Fair event went for full-on, unapologetic fun. Guests included Lady Bunny, Real Housewife Dorinda Medley, Gia Giudice, and America’s Next Top Model first male winner Nyle DiMarco. Of course, Close meeting her drag queen doppelgänger may very well go down in history as one of the campiest red-carpet moments of all time. That bodes well for the show’s upcoming season. If guilty-pleasure viewers want a little camp, they’re certainly going to get it.
Close plays Kardashian’s character’s legal mentor on the series. There were no prosthetics involved for that role, but Close is no stranger to extreme makeup herself. Her Hunger Games role required extensive prosthetics and fake teeth. She also underwent hours of gender-bending makeup for her titular role as Albert Nobbs. We’re sure she appreciates Stone’s craft.
Stone’s version is likely hard to beat, but we’d still love to see Drag Race take a stab at things. Who wouldn’t want to see Trixie Mattel’s take on Close’s “the wife” from the movie The Wife?
