THE MET GALA ; THE TRUTH ABOUT FABULOUS, QUEER, CAMP.

CAMP FASHION AT THE MET GALA.

WHAT IS CAMP FASHION?

The Met Gala is the Super Bowl of fashion. On the first Monday in May, everyone who is anyone comes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the annual fundraising gala celebrating the Costume Institute’s magnificent new exhibition on a changing theme.The theme of the 2019 Met Gala is "Camp: Notes On Fashion.".

Asking me the question "What is Camp", could be considered a little ironic. I am theatrical costume designer who also made many costumes for musical theatre and drag queens. Certainly, the best modern example of camp is drag. Furthermore camp is everything to do with basking in fabulousness, irony, and the humor of being extra. Since I love camp, I hope I can get the idea across to you all.

THE CAMP QUEER WORLD - THE MET GALA

In the first place, camp as an idea belongs to the queer community, from it's earliest beginnings. The first part of the exhibit looks back to queer subcultures of Europe and America that largely defined and explored homosexuality through camp in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are portraits of nude male bodies by photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe and Thomas Eakins, as well as a statue of the Greek God Antinous, Hadrian’s lover, which Bolton refers to as the “archetypical camp pose.” Today's camp movement can be largely defined by drag culture. In the 20th & 21 Centuries camp is Ru Paul. Camp is the legendary Charles Pierce, the fabled drag performer known for his gleefully nasty impersonations of Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and Mae West. Pierce took camp women and through his exaggerated impersonations made them campier.

The great gay disco of the 70's and 80's had a lot of camp. By all means the Village People are camp. However unless you have a bit of camp yourself it may be hard to recognize it in others. However I do hope you are getting the idea , fashion with out camp would be dull. The exaggeration, humor, and irony is something that often defines camp.

UNDERSTANDING CAMP

Furthermore, camp is the costumes of Bob Mackie for both Carol Brunnet and Cher. Great camp at it's best are the plays and quotes of Oscar Wilde. Camp is the great red living room of Diana Vreeland. Elton John and Lady Gaga are camp, not always but that is also the joy of camp, sometimes it works best as a vehicle when it seems inappropriate or shocking.

I can't think of a better example of camp than the fashion show of Haus Zuk , that was at Vancouver Fashion Week this Spring. The hot gay content , also had a wonderful sense of the tongue in cheek. Darling's this is camp , the over the top , the exaggerated, the larger than life. Camp is part of the lgbtq world and now becoming part of the world at large. Certainly as the population jumps on the camp bandwagon. with things like Ru Paul's Drag Race , designers like Peter Zuk are placed to open eyes and use camp to celebrate diversity!

photo by ChuHan Zheng - @vincent.the.snowboarder-

Check out the Haus of Zuk and the fabulous designer Peter Zuk.

Instagram: @hauszuk

"One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art."

-Oscar Wilde

“A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste—it’s hearty, it’s healthy, it’s physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I’m against.

-Diana Vreeland

CAMP, FASHION AT THE MET GALA.

From Balenciaga's towering platform Crocs to Björk's infamous swan dress and the Mugler oyster shell gown Cardi B wore to the Grammys, the "Camp: Notes on Fashion" exhibit is an exploration of how over-the-top fashion (or more accurately, FASHUN) has been used as both a form of expression and escapism throughout history. The concept was inspired by Susan Sontag's 1964 essay that defines camp as "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration."

In the essay Sontag breaks down the sensibility of camp in 58 bullet points and begins by explaining that not everything can be camp, but many things, ideas and objects can be considered “campy.” She noted that songs, movies, buildings, furniture, novels, people and, of course, clothes, all can encompass camp. In fact, Sontag gives her own examples of “campy” things which included Tiffany lamps, Swan Lake, King Kong and Flash Gordon comics.