The Met Gala and a History of Camp Fashion
By SHANNON KIM ‘21
On May 6, 2019, the most influential, wealthy, and beautiful celebrities gathered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala. Annually, hundreds of celebrities dress to themes like “Manus x Machina” and “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Anna Wintour hosts the event each year, along with Alessandro Michele, Serena Williams, Harry Styles, and Lady Gaga.
The 2019 theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” a play on words from Susan Sontag’s essay “Notes on ‘Camp,’ ” one of the first explanations of camp sensibility. The Met Museum’s exhibit centers around Sontag’s definition, and according to Andrew Bolton, head curator of the Costume Institute, “whether it’s pop camp, queer camp, high camp, or political camp—Trump is a very camp figure—I think it’s very timely.” Sontag states that “the essence of camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” Camp fashion is a taste defined by the distasteful and ironic.
The history of camp begins in the 20th century, when the word was used as a code for gay. From there, the term grew to encapsulate the aesthetic favored by the queer community: vivacious and theatrical. At its outset, camp was anything but mainstream. According to Sontag, “camp is esoteric—something of a private code, a badge of identity even.”
Recently, camp has grown popular among designers and consumers. Bolton says some designers, including “Jeremy [Scott], Marc [Jacobs], Anna Sui, Thom [Browne have] always deployed the camp aesthetic,” but when “designers who aren’t camp start employing it, that’s when you think: it’s here. We’re going through a camp moment.” On the runway, nearly every piece is camp: a more exaggerated version of the pieces that hit markets in the following weeks. This aesthetic drives fashion trends such as dad sneakers, bucket hats, fanny packs, and carpenter pants.
The Met Gala embodies camp sensibility. No matter the theme, guests wear over-the-top outfits, from Cher’s nearly naked dress in 1974 to Rihanna’s Pope outfit in 2018.
This year, Kendall and Kylie Jenner wore orange and purple matching dresses, complete in jewels and feathers. Six half-nude men carried Billy Porter onto the red carpet, where he raised his arms to reveal golden 10-foot wings. Katy Perry attended as a human chandelier, encrusted in crystals and bearing enormous rings of candles. Perhaps the embodiment of camp, Lady Gaga wore not one outfit but three, shedding layers throughout the event like a Russian doll. Accompanied by a squad of assistants, she transitioned from an enormous fuschia dress to a black puffy one to a hot pink slip before undressing to a bra and fishnet stockings.
One after another, actors, musicians, and politicians arrived on the Met’s steps in outrageous costumes. On the other end of the spectrum, Frank Ocean wore a simple black outfit. Vogue had tasked him with photographing at the Met Gala, and he carried a film camera as his only accessory. His shots captured candid moments at a highly performative event.
Due to his nondescript outfit, Ocean’s presence became one of the most scrutinized by disappointed fans. However, his choice to flout expectations may make his one of the most camp ensembles.
“It's good because it's awful,” writes Sontag—a reminder to appreciate the most atrocious moments. Camp fashion in itself, appealing to ironic foulness, serves as a reminder to welcome even the most seemingly shocking of moments.