Daily Times

NEW YORK: The Met Gala is one of the biggest fashion events in the calendar that invites guests to follow a specific dress code which matches the theme of the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

All artists are seen in avant garde numbers by their favourite designers. Everyone seems to take this event quite seriously.

Vogue announced the theme for 2019 Met Gala – it would be centred around all things “campy”, which means display of a whole lot of dramatic and theatrical outfits.

The 2019 Met Gala theme was inspired by late writer and filmmaker Susan Sontag’s legendary 1964 essay, “Notes on Camp,” in which she describes ‘camp’ as the “love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration; style at the expense of content.”

The gala will fittingly be sponsored by Gucci this year under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele, who will be co-chair of the night’s festivities, alongside Gucci’s muse Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, tennis star Serena Williams and Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour.

There will be 200 pieces in the show which will include men’s and women’s clothing, sculptures, paintings and drawings—some dating back to the 17th Century. Bjork’s infamous swan dress is also included in the mix. She wore the swan dress to the 2001 Academy Awards.

This coat from Gucci’s latest runway show was cited as an example of camp.

But what exactly does “camp” mean?

“Notes on Camp” is an essay by Susan Sontag, first published in 1964. It was her first contribution to the Partisan Review. The essay created a literary sensation and brought forth Sontag’s intellectual notoriety. It was republished in 1966 in Sontag’s debut collection of essays.

The essay codified and mainstreamed the cultural connotations of the word “camp” and identified camp’s evolution as a distinct aesthetic phenomenon.

A sensibility is one of the hardest things to talk about; but there are special reasons why Camp, in particular, has never been discussed. It’s not a natural mode of sensibility, if there be any such. Indeed, the essence of camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration. And camp is esoteric – something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques.

There is a list of 58 points on the essay to define the word ‘camp’. These points will dictate the theme for the Met Gala this 2019. Each point is so comprehensive that the stars are expected to match the detailed description, wearing pieces of assembled art for the Met Gala this year.

The event is open to all. The tickets to this year’s gala are selling for $35,000 and tables are priced at $200,000 and $300,000. So theoretically, yes, you can snag a ticket, but financially, that depends on your bank account.

The 2019 Met Gala will take place on May 6, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

“Obviously, it helps that well-known names draw attention to not only the gala but also to the exhibition and to the museum,” Anna Wintour said.

“For all the starriness of the names on that one night, we never lose sight of the fact that the aim of the gala is to raise funds for the Costume Institute, so we can support its place in the cultural life of New York City and beyond.”

Maybe one of us can tag along as Rick Owen’s human bag packs to suit the wacky theme for Met Gala this year. It would be an appropriate costume to match the dress code this year, also avoiding a $35,000 ticket.

Will this year’s Met Gala simply be bizarre fashion, who knows? We will soon find out in a few days.

The writer can be reached at zarimua@gmail.com