Every year, we wait to see what theme will be set for the Met Gala. This year, the theme was Camp. What is Camp, you ask?
Let’s start with how it began. The word ‘Camp’ was derived from French: se camper which means ‘to flaunt’ or ‘to posture’ first appeared in a play by Molière in 1671. It then appeared in the hallowed pages of a dictionary in 1909 with an entry that read: actions and gestures of exaggerated emphasis. Used chiefly by persons of exceptional want of character.
Susan Sontag published “Notes on Camp” in 1964 in the Fall issue of Partisan Review around the time the word ‘camp’ had begun to appear in literary and popular magazines. Sontag however, explored the subject seriously and catalogued a form of 58 notes on it! The Origins of camp were located as far back as the 17th and 18th century because of that period’s extraordinary feeling for artifice, for surface, for symmetry & Sontag framed it as ‘unmistakably modern’ where she captured the sensibility of the era and promoted ‘the equivalence of all objects.’
In the 19th century, the word ‘Camp’ acquired homosexual connotations as part of a coded language among gay men where the language was topsy turvy – men were known as women, friends as sisters and lovers as wives and husbands.
To break it down as much as possible, according to Thomas Meehan (American playwright who wrote, Hairspray, The Producers & Annie), “Camp is a ‘third stream of taste, that encompasses the curious attraction that everyone – to some degree at least – has for the bizarre and the blatantly outrageous.”
Co Chairs, Alessandro Michele & Harry Styles
How to be comfortable with your masculinity
ZENDAYA
How to be a real life Cinderella… & leave your glass slipper at the ball.
Zendaya did, does and continues to do THAT. #MetGala pic.twitter.com/kQj1WXfQ0K
— E! News (@enews) May 7, 2019
i'm crying she really left her shoe y'all. bibbidi bobbidi, and i cannot stress this enough, BOO #MetGala @Zendaya pic.twitter.com/mTVOOSYMLd
— Tanuja Anne (@TanujaAnne) May 7, 2019
LADY GAGA
How to out do the others with not one, not two but FOUR costume changes!
It’s like she brought back The Fame era. ? #MetGala pic.twitter.com/RXW1xBId78
— Elizabeth West (@ElizabethWestTN) May 7, 2019
lady gaga is camp #MetGala pic.twitter.com/jSw1q2gxku
— Lady Gaga ⭐ (@AMENARTPOP) May 7, 2019
KATY PERRY
How to light up the pink carpet with outrageous costumes, TWICE.
When he says you can brighten up my life.#MetGala pic.twitter.com/JU6IIpKrHC
— Aman ?? (@TheAlteria) May 7, 2019
iM GONNA SWINNNGGG FROM THE CHANDELIEERRR #MetGala pic.twitter.com/rzsTxSB2hP
— tae with luv (@springfevertae) May 7, 2019
EZRA MILLER
How to nail The Met Gala theme down to a tee!
How does the flash run at lightning speed but no accident #MetGala #MetaGala pic.twitter.com/BaR95oSCaa
— R?Ssss (@kruyraikakun) May 7, 2019
The Flash y'all.
Ezra Miller? More like Extra Miller lmao. #MetGala #MetGala2019 pic.twitter.com/e6gs3ZTF7G— ✨njoki with the wanderlust✨ (@justfionalol) May 7, 2019
RIHANNA
How to play it safe and ghost the biggest fashion event of the year!
Queen of the night ? once again #Rihanna #METGala pic.twitter.com/c1tqPJo0pJ
— Jhin (@iptomus) May 7, 2019
GIGI HADID
How to make a McQueen reminiscent look work in Michael Kors
I can't express this enough but Gigi slayed this one for me #MetGala pic.twitter.com/ln0UIBpzhE
— Franz B. Cabidog (@thedeputyprime) May 7, 2019
JARED LETO
How to make 2 faced high fashion
MICHAEL URIE
How to bring the death of toxic masculinity, a coin termed for the boys that nailed the theme!
Diane Von Furstenberg
How to honour Lady Liberty at a prestigious event
JANELLE MONAE
How to make Picasso proud in what you wear!
CELINE DION
Grace is, dripping in glittering tassels but looking ON POINT.
BILLY PORTER
How to WIN at the Met Gala. Cleopatra would be proud of the look, that fashionable entrance and sass! 3 for 3, BP!
Billy Porter arrives in pharaoh phashion #MetGala https://t.co/R7FRlFINhH pic.twitter.com/B3NY1CKJrE
— Variety (@Variety) May 6, 2019
This year's #MetGala theme was to camp it up on the red carpet.
Here's a look at who *very much* understood the assignment — from Lady Gaga to Billy Porter, Cardi B and Ezra Miller ?https://t.co/ZWfl9F7298
— NPR (@NPR) May 7, 2019
And last but not the least of our favourites,
MARY KATE & ASHLEY OLSEN
Not on theme, but SO chic, we can’t not post them!