Met Gala 2019: All The Hits-And-Misses of “Camp: Notes on Fashion”
Known as “Fashion’s Biggest Night”, the annual Met Gala was themed ‘Camp: Fashion on Notes’ and here’s how celebrities expressed their interpretation on the red carpet this year
Met Gala 2019: All The Hits-And-Misses of “Camp: Notes on Fashion”
Every first Monday of May is the most glamorous and extravagant night in the fashion scene. The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts the costume Institute Gala every year to kick start the opening of its renowned fashion exhibition theme. With the tradition of planning a dress code specially chosen by Met Gala’s co-chairs, this year’s theme leaves many up for interpretation.
“Camp: Notes on Fashion” is designed to pay homage to American writer – Susan Sontag. In an essay “Notes on Camp”, Sontag touched on the new symbolism of the liberal attitude towards sexuality, politics, and society that we associate with the 1960s.
One particular subject touched in her essay was on a flavour of homosexual taste called camp. An early draft of Sontag’s essay was called “Notes on Homosexuality,” and the piece, later published as part of her collection Against Interpretation, can be read as a codification of gay taste. “The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration,” wrote Sontag. “And Camp is esoteric—something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques.”
Camp, Sontag writes, is all about artifice, exaggeration, and superficial style over content, and yet it’s “dead serious.” Designers like Moschino and Balenciaga has payed homage to the thrilling theme this year in their past and current collections. Screaming ‘camp’ is also fashion power house, Gucci, the official sponsor of the Met Gala 2019. Thus, the exhibition features leotards, rainbow capes, flamingo headpiece and anything that embodies ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’.
Going beyond fashion is celebrities who expresses the aesthetics of ‘Camp’. Lady Gaga and Katy Perry channels the vibes of ‘Camp’ with their aesthetics in albums and looks throughout the years. Lady Gaga’s iconic meat dress for the Grammys and Katy Perry’s stage set for her Witness Tour can be easily translated into Met Gala’s theme.
This year’s theme has left many A-list celebrities who were invited up for interpretation. From Lady Gaga impressing the crowd with four different looks to Jared Leto carrying a replica of his head, here are the hits-and-misses of Met Gala 2019.
Celebrities Who Nailed ‘Camp’
Worst Dressed at Met Gala 2019
