For those of you who live miles away from New York City, I wanted to treat you to a glimpse of some of the brilliant styles on show at The Met for the Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibit.
Last week’s Met Gala had me feeling somewhat disillusioned. To me, the Camp aesthetic isn’t to dress like a straight up Victoria’s Secret angel or a peaking Paris Hilton, but something rather more difficult to describe, let alone conquer. It’s an elevation beyond your wildest comprehension of otherwise seemingly ordinary articles of clothing.
Not surprisingly, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry triumphed over the brief at the Met Gala, because though they are a completely different species, both are equal parts quirky, tongue-in-cheek and OTT. Camp also doesn’t necessarily mean pretty perfection (we’ve seen that), or raiding a theater restaurant wardrobe archive. It’s…hard to describe. This isn’t cabaret, chums, but it is kind of. Most simply I would describe camp as a voluminous skirt with a sequinned bodice worn with a beard, heels, a cracking sense of humour, and a whole lot of swagger.
Enjoy these images, and please get to the Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibition if you can. It’s open until September. The rest of us will simply continue conducting our camp business from the comfort of home, which in my case, is all the way in Australia.
Ensemble, Bertrand Guyon (French, born 1965) for House of Schiaparelli (French, founded 1927), fall/winter 2018–19 haute couture; Courtesy of Schiaparelli. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2019
Ensemble, Alessandro Michele (Italian, born 1972) for Gucci (Italian, founded 1921), fall/winter 2016–17; Courtesy of Gucci Historical Archive. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018
Camp: Notes on Fashion is on view until September 8 at The Met Fifth Avenue in New York City. More info here.
Socials: #MetCamp #CostumeInstitute #MetMuseum @metcostumeinstitute
The Garb Wire 