Met Gala 2019 - Camp: Notes on Fashion

10th May 2019 - Aina Matamoros

First Monday in May is the biggest date in the Fashion world, The Superbowl of Fashion as some people like to call it. The Met Gala takes place to celebrate the opening of the new exhibition of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC (and also to rise funds for the Institute and the future exhibitions). It is the most star-studded event of the year: actors and actresses, singers, models, designers, personalities and celebrities of all kind walk the pink carpet up the stairs to the MET entrance showing their on-theme looks (well, or not so on theme ones).

This year’s theme was Camp: Notes on Fashion, based on the essay wrote by Susan Sontag in 1964. The theme of the exhibition is decided by Andrew Bolton (chief curator The Costume Insitute). Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and the head of the gala, explained in the most recent Go Ask Anna video posted on vogue.com that she only gave one advice to Andrew is “whatever the theme of the exhibition is, make sure everybody understands it immediately”. She herself admitted that this year, the theme was not so clear.

So, many articles appeared before the gala explaining what the CAMP concept really means in fashion (which is nothing related to boy scouts, hiking or survive in the outdoors), but, still, it’s not clear. I’ll try to explain the way I understand it: Camp is a way to express yourself with freedom and as who you really are. It is extravaganza, outrageous, fun, exaggeration, colorful. "Camp is not in terms of beauty, but in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylization," says Susan Sontag in her essay “Camp: Notes on Fashion”.

Here are some articles to help you understand what Camp really is

SHANE O’NEILL and MATTHEW SCHNEIER | May 4, 2019 What is Camp (Now)? The New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/style/100000006484770/met-gala-camp.html?searchResultPosition=1

LAIRD BORRELLI-PERSSON | May 6, 2019 “Camp: Notes on Fashion”—From the Runway to the Met Vogue.com: https://www.vogue.com/article/met-gala-2019-runway-debuts

LAUREN VALENTI | May 3, 2019 From Josephine Baker to Cher, 25 Camp Beauty Icons Through the Decades Vogue.com: https://www.vogue.com/article/camp-beauty-icons-through-the-decades

Lady Gaga, Serena Williams, Harry Styles and Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele were the four co-chairs Anna Wintour chose for this year’s gala. All of them, very on theme. Lady Gaga did the first and most amazing entrance of the night, changing into 4 different looks and pulling off a very gagaish performance. She was accompanied by her friend and designer of the looks, Brandon Maxwell, who did not dress any other guest, but he obviously did not need to, because he and Gaga won the night. Serena Williams dressed in a voluminous neon yellow with pinkish details Versace gown and wearing Nike x Off White sneakers, was all of us tired of wearing high heels. She looked amazing and showed another face of camp. Harry Styles and Alessandro Michele did their entrance together; both dressed in Gucci, of course. Their looks were kind of low key but really on theme. Harry wore heeled boots, a single hanging pearl earring and a sheer shirt that showed his nipples (and yes, people have many different opinions about it, but I think he nailed it). We were all expecting to see him wearing a shiny suit and crazy sunglasses, but, instead, he surprised us all showing camp in the tiniest details. Alessandro wore a sparkling reddish outfit, with ruffles on the shirt and a crown.

Captura de pantalla 2019-05-12 a les 11.

Lady Gaga Look 1

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Lady Gaga Look 2

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Lady Gaga Look 3

Lady Gaga Look 4

All of the looks by Brandon Maxwell

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Serena Williams in Versace

Harry Styles in Gucci

Alessandro Michele in Gucci

Moving on to the rest of the guests, there were looks for all tastes. Guests dressed very on-theme, some others way over on theme, some others were “just there looking nice and hot” (like most of the models) and others just did not seem to understand what this is all about. This year’s theme was so complicated to understand but simple to pull off, that people just went for the feathers, the sparkles, the pink, silver and gold, and the big hair.

I will do three rankings. Best dressed (a mix between on theme and really awesome looks I would love to wear), looks that need to be mentioned (a mix of on-theme looks and way over on theme looks) and, lastly, other “just nice and hot” looks that I liked and are gorgeous, but for a normal and simple Oscar ceremony or after-party.

My most favorite look of the night was Hailey Bieber’s super tight, leathery, pastel pink Alexander Wang dress. I am obsessed. I do not particularly like this girl (in fact, I kind of cannot stand her), but oh man she really looked awesome. The dress was long-sleeved, had a turtleneck and was backless until the very beginning of her butt, which was adorned with a thong with the word WANG on the intersection of the strips. The beauty look was also very on point, with the high and voluminous ponytail. I WILL BE OBSESSED FOREVER WITH THIS DRESS/LOOK. My other favorites were Naomi Campbell, looking like a goddess in a Valentino pink dress, with lace tights and a precious feathered cape; Anna Wintour wearing (as always) a Chanel dress and a cape made of pink and purple feathers; Lady Gaga, again, with her third look, being all the moods we are having right now; Lily Collins with her huge hair full of flowers and her Giambattista Balli pale pink dress, short in the front and very long in the back and full of ruffles; and lastly Zendaya dressed as Disney’s Cinderella with a gown designed by Tommy Hilfiger that lit up when her fairy godmother/stylist shook his magic wand at the entrance of the gala.

1. Hailey Baldwin in Alexander Wang

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2. Naomi Campbell in Valentino

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3. Anna Wintour in Chanel

4. Lady Gaga in Brandon Maxwell

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5. Lily Collins in Giambattista Balli

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6. Zendaya in Tommy Hilfiger

Just a quick note: as you can see, all of them (except for the princess one) are pink. You now understand my whole obsession with this color: it comes naturally.

About the campiest looks that need to be mentioned, here we have Billy Porter as a golden Egyptian god and wearing The Blonds (he also made quite an entrance); Katy Perry, who always goes too risky, as a chandelier in Moschino; Cardi B as a literal red carpet in Thom Browne, Ezra Miller wearing and Burberry suit and 7 eyes in his face; Emily Ratajskowski channeling Cher in Dundas; Lupita Nyong’o wearing in all the possible neon colors in her Versace dress and eye makeup, a part of a huge hair full of golden combs; Kacey Musgraves as Barbie in Moschino; Jared Leto carrying his own head dressed in Gucci; or Kim Kardashian showing her impossible silhouette in a Thierry Mugler dress covered in fake crystal water drops to make her look wet. (See slideshow in order of mention above)