It’s hard to beat last year’s Met Gala theme Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, but 2019’s Camp: Notes on Fashion certainly makes a statement, and has an important history.
In direct reference to Susan Sontag’s 1964 Notes on “Camp” the looks on the ‘pink carpet’ this year were a celebration of colour, extravagance and all things flamboyant.
Camp is almost impossible to define, but Sontag summarises Camp, in essence, as the ‘love of the unnatural, of artifice and exaggeration’.
It is clear that some celebrities got the theme completely, namely Katy Perry in her fabulous Moschino chandelier dress, perhaps in tribute to Sontag’s claim that ‘it’s not a lamp, but a “lamp”; not a woman, but a “woman”.
Kendall and Kylie Jenner also, somewhat surprisingly, embraced the theme, with extravagant feathered dresses in gaudy colours.
Lady Gaga, first on the red carpet, also went above and beyond with four wonderfully camp looks. As always, there were several celebrities who seemed to have missed the memo.
Most disappointing perhaps being Taron Egerton and Rami Malek, who turned up in simple black suits after playing two ‘camp legends’, Elton John and Freddie Mercury. My personal favourite look of the gala was Ezra Miller’s amazing optical illusion makeup, and stunning Burberry suit, with additional diamond corset and train. The look is androgynous and unnerving, evoking the work of the Surrealists, as well as the mask artworks of Gillian Wearing.
However, it was Lena Waithe and fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond’s suits that truly showed the meaning of camp. ‘Camp’ in the modern day is a term we associate especially with the queer community (Sontag explains that ‘while it’s not true that Camp taste is a homosexual taste, there is no doubt an overlap.’) Lena Waithe and Kerby Jean-Raymond’s matching suits proclaiming ‘Black Drag Queens Inventend Camp’ (‘Inventend’ being a drag term meaning ‘invent with intent to slay’) therefore make a powerful statement reminding us of the history behind the glamour of the Met Gala. Although Camp has a longer history behind it, including the styles of the ‘dandy’ of the eighteenth century, the Catholic, Latinx and Jewish communities, as well as other groups, much of Camp as we know it today comes from drag culture.
The popularity of shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race means that the world of drag is becoming much more mainstream pop culture. RuPaul himself attended the Met Gala, in an acceptably campy, but still somehow disappointing Zaldy hot-pink zebra-print suit.
Winners from previous seasons of Drag Race were also in attendance, with Season 10’s winner Aquaria being the first drag queen to walk the Met Gala’s red carpet (wearing a Galliano black ribbon gown, a stark white wig and crystal covered clawed gloves). Season 7’s winner Violet Chachki attended in a Moschino dress in the style of a giant black glove, in reference to her burlesque performances.
It is important to remember, however, the drag ball-culture that Drag Race stems from, documented most famously in Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris is Burning. The documentary follows several individuals living in New York, with a diverse range of people from the African-American and Latino communities, dealing with issues such as homelessness, racism, poverty, AIDS and homophobia.
Many of the individuals featured in the documentary are also transgender, making RuPaul’s comments last year that he would ‘probably not’ let a trans woman compete in Drag Race (despite having several trans women and non-binary contestants already come out of the show) all the more controversial. It was great to see, therefore, the cast of Ryan Murphy’s FX drama Pose in attendance.
Pose is a dramatization of the New York ball culture in the 1980s, and features the largest ever transgender cast for a scripted series. Ryan Murphy himself looked wonderfully camp, in a golden suit and pearl embroidered, shell inspired cape, in reference to American musician and actor Liberace.
It was Pose’s Billy Porter however, who truly won the Met Gala, dressed in a gold encrusted, Cleopatra inspired catsuit with wings, carried in on a float by six topless men. Billy Porter’s Instagram proclaims ‘one should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art’ – an Oscar Wilde quote, to which Sontag’s essay is dedicated.
Indya Moore, a non-binary actor who stars as transgender sex worker Angel in Pose, declared on their Instagram that they spoke to RuPaul about ‘informing his audience about our culture and experiences in ways that aren’t just entertaining them.’ This is an important idea to remember as RuPaul’s Drag Race becomes more and more part of mainstream media, it was formed from the culture of the marginalised.
The theme of ‘Camp’ for the Met Gala therefore, seems somewhat paradoxical. As one of the biggest, most elite events in the fashion and art world, the Met Gala’s use of a theme defined, at least recently, by marginalised groups seems somewhat tasteless. As Sontag wrote, 'Camp is esoteric - something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques.’ However, it is also an incredible feat that such a prestigious museum such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has created an exhibition around this theme. Head curator Andrew Bolton claimed that the exhibition’s overall aim of camp is ‘to put a smile on our faces and a warm glow in our hearts.’ Violet Chachski echoes a similar sentiment, claiming in an interview in Vogue: ‘something else that resonated with me about Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” was this idea of being frivolous about the serious and serious about the frivolous. This is something so true in the drag community: we are the first to take something like the HIV/AIDS crisis and make light of it, to turn something so tragic and painful into humor.’ Overall, therefore, although the fun of camp at the Met should be embraced, it is also important to remember its history of struggle.
Camp: Notes on Fashion is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8 May 2019 – 8 Sep 2019
Written by Emma Pearce
Sources:
Sontag, Susan. Notes on “Camp”. 1964
Livingston, Jennie. Paris is Burning. Netflix. 1990.