Hi everyone it's Justine. Every year in May, the Metropolitan Museum in New York is hosting a charity gala to celebrate
fashion and its latest
exhibition at the Costume Institute.
It always gets a lot of press and
international visibility and attention because all the guests are A- listers. They are wearing custom designs, couture gowns,
special things that have been secretly developed just for that occasion (together with the designers).
It's always a great display of handcraft or creativity of innovations in terms of materials and fabrics.
It's super inspiring and
really fun to look at. So let's look at that.
First, I will try to explain what the theme was, according to which the
guests were expected to dress. And then we'll do a ranking from
boring to
fantastically on theme and absolutely inspiring. Because, in this case boring means
did not bother to look at the theme, even though it is a themed party. And wear something normal instead. If you're not
dressing out of your comfort zone for the Met Gala,
where else would you do that? First, the theme.
'Camp: Notes on Fashion.' So, I have to admit, when I read the theme for the first time, I thought, "Am I
missing a cultural reference?" Well, I
had no idea what it could possibly mean, and if your native language is not English,
you might be just as confused as I was. Be reassured, it's normal.
So, I had to do some further research and this is what I found. There is an essay by Susan Sontag
(1964) that tries to
conceptualise and to explain in words what camp
means.
Camp is not
an idea, it's not a concept. It's rather a sensibility,
aesthetically. It's not elitist. It's not snob, it's not exclusive at all. It's rather rooted in popular culture.
I'm quoting,
"It's a taste for the unnatural, for artifice and
exaggeration." That immediately explains why Lady Gaga would be chosen as one of the co-hosts for the event. Whoo! Ha ha!
She's probably very camp! More on that later. Camp is either
completely naive or else wholly conscious. If it is conscious, then
how good you are at it, is measured in terms of artifice and not in terms of beauty. It's seeing life as
theatre, being extravagant and extraordinary,
even playing a character, possibly.
You're not looking for good taste, you're looking for something interesting
aesthetically. You can bet that the red carpet people at this year's Met Gala
fully embraced that interpretation.
In a nutshell, this theme fits perfectly for, I think, for designers. Um...
Versace, and their extravaganza.
Moschino by Jeremy Scott, and their bad tastes/humorous take on fashion.
Gucci, the new creative director, so camp, and Schiaparelli, because
you know, she invented shocking pink. I
don't know if you've noticed, but the thumbnail photo for this video is framed in the exact font and reference of shocking pink.
Let's move on to the looks and to the ranking. Yes, we're taking this way too seriously.
First, the people who get one star out of five. Demi Moore, wearing St. Laurent.
It is, not exactly completely outside of the theme. It is a possible interpretation of it, but
she's worn similar things in the past already.
There are other ladies who chose this approach as well, a masculine look eh on a feminine silhouette,
but, several ones did it more creatively really.
Then Kim Kardashian.
It's a wet-look
dress by Mugler in latex with actual water drops hanging, falling off her.
The dress is absolutely beautiful. Don't get me wrong, but it's the silhouette that she wears at every event.
It's 100% her comfort zone. She
didn't play the theme really.
Then Miley Cyrus. She is actually famous for being extravagant and/or
outrageous. So this theme was for her, yet she's wearing something surprisingly wearable and
normal. Ha ha.
Which for a Met Gala, does not do the job.
Then we have a quite big group of people who get two to three stars. So I put them all together.
Kendall and Kylie Jenner, in Versace. This is cabaret theatre, hence the feathers and all the volume. It's not the craziest
they've ever worn, but the matchy-matchy outfits and the matching hair are fun.
They coordinated their outfits to make it more extra, and that counts.
Nicki Minaj, you might argue that her look is extravagant and over-the-top.
The thing is, that is what she always wears. It's her aesthetics
anyway. She has reportedly said, she does not understand what camp even means,
so she just let the designer do his thing. But
actually, she's the personification of camp, if you asked me, so that was funny.
Cardi B in Tom Brown.
It reminds me a bit of Rihanna's circle, yellow train dress a couple years ago.
Except that this one looks like a pillow, with heavily padded hips. She's accentuating the hips of motherhood.
He apparently took 35 people and 2000 hours to make it. It's not something you'd wear
if you strictly wanted to look elegant, so it absolutely deserved a spot in this ranking.
Women in rap music,
currently, all seem to be somehow influenced by this idea of camp.
Like, extravagant, what do you mean? This is my everyday look. Of course pink is my natural hair. Hello!
Celine Dion. That's a vintage musical look, kind of, definitely extravagant. Beautiful headpiece.
There is a side of camp that likes vintage aesthetics because you wouldn't wear it anymore today, but you still appreciate the boldness of it
retrospectively, so missus Dion is absolutely on theme. Jordan Dunn in Zac Posen.
Interesting, because models usually wear long, skin tight gowns that show of their bodies. Here
she rather went for the aesthetic concept of the voluminous flower.
She's wearing a flower, rather than a flattering dress. The petals, by the way,
are 3-D printed, very interesting execution. Hailee Steinfeld in Viktor & Rolf, this look made me smile
It includes both humour and irony, with a flesh tone area,
can you see that in her dress? Which makes anyone looking at her,
automatically a voyeur. It's a bold message and that deserves three stars. Moving on to four stars.
This is a really very, very high level in terms of red carpet
benchmarks. Be sure that the designers and the celebrities, in order to get these results,
worked hand in hand for weeks and did multiple fittings.
Hamish Bowles, from Vogue in Maison Margiela, very bold, even for him. Look at the hair! Ha ha.
He's one of the only men who did not come with the classic suit.
He's the one who could also have pulled off Schiaparelli,
but Margiela is also a good choice. Ezra Miller in Burberry.
There is this less obvious side of camp, which finds beauty in
the feminine side of a man and in the masculine side of a woman, because a simple
masculine man would be normal and therefore, aesthetically it wouldn't be as
interesting. Ezra Miller went for this androgynous look,
paired with brilliant makeup. Janelle Monae in
Christian Siriano.
For me, that is the strongest take on the masculine/feminine thing among all those who went for that approach.
It is art. It is glamorous.
Listen, there is a little engine in the bra which makes the eye blink so the eyelashes move.
How fun is that?
Violet Chachki in Moschino. This, eh ha,
Jessica Rabbit meets Dita Von Teese, with a train that looks like a hand glove.
It's cartoony smart and fun at the same time.
Love it!
Lupita Nyong'o came in Versace. This is very bold colour mix for her. Normally, she rather wears one
tone throughout. I love the combination, the huge Afro hairstyle with multiple golden picks for good measure.
Priyanka Chopra in Dior. She looks like the crazy Queen of Heart in Alice in Wonderland.
Who is completely extra? I love it. The Queen of Heart is totally a camp character, great choice. And now, my favourites.
These outfits get five stars. Diane von Furstenberg, wearing her own design, with her own face on it.
That is coming from a very elegant lady, with a twinkle in the eye. I like it.
Definitely one of the boldest looks among the designers, as well. Billy Porter,
in 'The Blondes' came as Cleopatra, or is it Diana Ross?
This is the part of camp that plays a character,
adding drama
for the sake of aesthetics.
Donatella Versace changed her hair colour for the occasion, which is rare. An
outrageous neon green on a couture dress, if that's not camp, then I don't know. Cara Delevigne in Dior.
This is a comic outfit, for a supermodel, and also a daring design for a serious house
like Dior. I mean, she's confidently wearing a cooked egg and bananas in a headpiece, ha!
And she had lots of fun
apparently. Jared Leto is carrying his head around, literally. I found the idea hilarious.
The outfit is by Gucci, like last year.
To be honest, when I think about the Gucci man, I see Jarrett Leto. It's a perfect match with that brand.
Katy Perry in Moschino.
She's a master of humorous performance outfits. Here she casually came as a chandelier. Ha.
She needed two people to get her up the stairs, because she couldn't look down to see what she was putting her feet,
that is camp. Lady Gaga,
of course, in a colour that looks a lot like shocking pink, but not from Schiaparelli,
attracting all the attention available.
She started with a huge Hollywood gown,
then took it off and went full cabaret with fishnet stockings and a provocative performance, which
delighted the paparazzi.
I think that Katy Perry and Lady Gaga are two ladies who clearly built up a camp
Inspired aesthetics for themselves within pop culture. For them, this theme was a home run.
If you enjoyed this review, and if at least one of the outfits made you smile,
thumbs up! Thank you very much. Ha ha.
Thank you.
Overall, this year's red carpet was less homogeneous than in previous years,
but that's mostly because camp is really a complex topic that can be tackled from many different angles,
interpreted in different ways.
There is not just one way of looking at it, and
it's good because, the
Designers were free to pick the angle that they preferred, and I can see in the results how they had fun creating the looks.
Confusing at first, but in the end a great theme.
Now tell me, which outfit was your favourite, and why, of course.
If you want to re-watch, watch, re-watch previous Met Galas, with a different theme each year,
I've done a couple of years already on this channel,
so I will link these videos here and down below in the description, if you want more entertainment. That's it from me for today
but I wish you a great rest of the day and I'll see you soon in a new video.
Take care, bye!