Cardi B in Thom Browne (Photo: Getty Images)
The philosophy behind this year’s world-renowned Met Gala is one that seeks to upend the usual defined boundaries of organized fashion themes. Based on the 1964 essay Notes on “Camp”, written by well-known American writer Susan Sontag, the ideology behind “Camp” is not a pre-defined,cookie-cutter idea. Camp incorporates a philosophy of “its love of the unnatural, of artifice and exaggeration.” It heavily values the amount of energy put into the stylization of one’s outfit versus just the simple attractiveness of it. Exuberant, vibrant, and over-the-top are just some of the highlights that make the MET Gala’s Camp theme shine as a unique event to have experienced this May, 2019.
Billy Porter in The Blonds (Photo: Getty Images)
“Camp is a vision of the world in terms of style — but a particular kind of style. It is the love of the exaggerated the ‘off’, of things-being-what-they-are-not”. “When something is just bad (rather than
Camp), it’s often because it is too mediocre in its ambition. The artist hasn’t attempted to do anything really outlandish”, Sontag has been on record to say in her aforementioned essay. This style is more strict about it can not be than what it can be permissible as. The outcome is an endless realm of
creativity that is often colorful, unorthodox, and even gender-bending at times. It will be quite interesting to continue to witness how the fashion industry absorbs this unusual yet influential energy over the years to come.
Lena Waithe in Pyer Moss (Photo: Getty Images)