Every year on the First Monday in May,the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts the Costume Institute Galato kick off the opening of its popular fashion exhibit at The Costume Institute. The Met Gala’s dress code always honors the exhibit’s theme. Whether paying homage to a designer like Alexander McQueen in 2011’s “Savage Beauty,” or tackling broader themes like 2018’s “Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” most stars take the dress code very seriously on the red carpet. And this year, we expect it to be no different, especially because the theme leaves much room for playful, exaggerated interpretation.
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“Whether it’s pop camp, queer camp, high camp or political camp —Trumpis a very camp figure — I think it’s very timely,” the curator of the institute, Andrew Bolton,told theNew York Timesabout his choice. “Much of high camp is a reaction to something.”
Another reason this is a fitting theme for the night is that designers are embracing camp in collections and runway shows now more than ever before.
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Another main component of camp is its preference to “seeing everything in quotation marks.” And one designer who embraces that sensibility is Virgil Abloh, who has been placing quotation marks on pieces throughout his Off-White line the last few seasons.
Viktor & Rolf is another brand that perfectly embodies the theme thanks to the fall 2019 collection that featured exaggerated tiered tulle gowns with cheeky phrases like “Less Is More” and “I’m Not Shy I Just Don’t Like You” in the center of the gown. As Sontag put it in her essay, the “hallmark” or Camp is “the spirit of extravagance.”
According to Sontag, “the essential element is seriousness, a seriousness that fails. Of course, not all seriousness that fails can be redeemed as Camp. Only that which has the proper mix of the exaggerated, the fantastic, the passionate, and the naïve.”
She explains that when something is bad, not camp, it was “too mediocre in its ambition.” The seriousness in Moschino’s candy-colored Babie-esque dresses can be seen as camp, like in 2016 when paper doll dresses were sent down the runway.
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So which stars are likely to embrace the over-the-top exuberance of camp? Most likely the celebrities who regularly go over-the-top (we’re looking at you,Rihanna, who wore a papal headpiece last year).
The show will have about 175 pieces from men’s and women’s wear, to sculpture, paintings and drawings and presented designers will include Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga and Moschino. The exhibit runs from May 9 to Sept. 8,according toVogue.
source: people.com
