Susan Sontag defined camp in—count ’em!—58 ways in her landmark essay. In a nutshell, camp is an elusive and playful and knowing sensibility, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. As Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton noted in his press preview remarks on Monday, it’s likely to make you smile.
Being a free-form concept partial to exaggeration, camp can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways. Cher singing Abba’s “Waterloo”: check. A flurry of feathers: check. And so on. In fact, there were as many takes on the idea on the party of the year’s pink carpet as there were guests. (More if you count outfit changes.) Even the theme rejectors were making a comment about the motif. So, how did the attendees define camp? We counted some of the ways.
Here are 20 notes on camp, collected from the pink carpet.
Camp is believing the world is your oyster.
Camp is not saying what you mean.
Fairy tales are camp.
Camp is surreal.
Art Deco is camp.
Camp is operatic.
Camp is a many-feathered thing.
Barbie is camp.
Camp is self-referential.
Camp is being lit.
Camp is heady.
Camp is rainbows.
Camp is running away with the circus.
Camp is cotton candy–colored hair.
Mary Poppins is camp.
Camp is capes.
Camp is a single pearl earring, à la Vermeer.
Camp is trains.
Camp is the bare bones.
Camp is, evidently, pantless.
See All of the Celebrity Looks From the Met Gala 2019 Red Carpet:
Met Gala 2019: See Every Celebrity Arrival, Read the Latest Stories, and Get Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Here
