INSPIRATION: CAMP NOTES ON FASHION
Prepare to embark on a grand and extravagant journey into 300 years of camp culture, at the Metropolitan Museum, until September 8. “Camp: Notes on Fashion” analyses the origins of camp’s exuberant aesthetic and shows how the concept went from marginal to mainstream.
Mark your calendar! It is that time of year again. The Costume Institute’s spring exhibition – one of the most eagerly anticipated annual fashion events – is back. In 2018 it hosted its all-time most visited exhibit in its 149-year history: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”, a dialogue between fashion and medieval art. Fast forward a year: same place but drastically different and totally opposite atmosphere. Liturgical garments and accessories, intricate and delicate haute couture embroidery and medieval art gave way to yards and yards of tulle, thousands of feathers, splashes of pink, bows, sequins and more pink… Welcome to Camp!
Clockwise: Vivienne Westwood, Thom Browne, Gucci and Eather Newton
A Sontag’s inspired show
Based on the American critic Susan Sontag’s famous 1964 Partisan Review essay, “Notes on Camp”, the 2019 exhibition of the MET’s Costume Institute – that will run through September 8 – explores this ever-changing concept. With more than 250 objects dating as far back as the 17th century, it features stunning pieces by the likes of John Galliano, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Alessandro Michele, Franco Moschino, Jeremy Scott…
Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute, told the New York Times he had been considering the notion of camp for the last few years. He indeed explored Sontag’s essay – which contains 58 different definitions of the term “camp” – back in 2017 and introduced the designer Rei Kawakubo to the concept when mounting the Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons MET’s exhibition. He also found his inspiration in the 2019 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riot, a turning point in LGBTQ politics in the United States.
From naïve camp to deliberate camp
“Camp: Notes on Fashion” is divided into two sections. The first half explores the roots of camp that go back to Versailles and the flamboyant posturing of the French court under Louis XIV. The show traces the origins of the word back to the French verb “se camper”, meaning “to flaunt” or “to posture”, that was used for the first time in Molière’s 1671 play “Les Fourberies de Scapin”. From then on, camp flourished and established itself out of Versailles into 18th and 19th century queer culture – from the story of Fanny and Stella, two Victorian cross-dressers to Oscar Wilde’s sensibility – before hitting the mainstream in the 60’s.
The “Failed Seriousness” passageway that leads towards the show’s second part is particularly well articulated and gives us clues as to the difference made by Sontag herself, between “naïve camp” and “deliberate camp”. In a succession of windows, Bolton presents couture dresses right next to their extravagant contemporary counterpart. Amongst those unprecedented vis-à-vis: a 1983 Yves Saint Laurent couture evening gown sporting a gigantic pink bow faces a 2017 Moschino real-life trompe l’oeil paper doll dress with an over-the-top two-dimensional bow.
Clockwise: Balenciaga, Viktor&Rolf, Lanvin-Castillo, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, House of Moschino and House of Moschino.
While the first part of the show – that takes place in flamingo pink narrow corridors – presents the less obvious stages of camp, the second half opens onto an immense instagrammable room and highlights the extravagant, “in your face” camp thanks to a series of colorful floor-to -ceiling cubicles. An overwhelming, head-turning number of over-the-top pieces are presented: Moschino’s Jeremy Scott F/W 2019 “TV Dinner” evening cape covered with faux peas, carrots and mashed potatoes, Thierry Mugler’s F/W 1995 oyster shell dress wore by Cardi B to the 2019 Grammys, Manish Arora’s S/S 2019 circus carrousel dress, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s F/W 1988/89 “Arche de Noé” teddy bear jacket, Bjork's famous 2001 swan dress by Marjan Pejoski, Viktor and Rolf’s S/S 2019 “Less is More Haute Couture gown… to name but a few.
What is camp after all?
The 2019 Costume Institute exhibit theme appears to be deeply intellectual, intellectualized, and conceptual. The show certainly plays with the audience’s brain throughout the whole show. Andrew Bolton, the mastermind behind it all, explains that the term is "nearly impossible to define or summarize, but that’s part of its poetry". Camp is in the eye of the beholder: each and every person visiting the exhibition constructs his/her own personal take on this blurry and evanescent concept. This subjective, ever-evolving and subversive nature is what makes camp so compelling. Do not hesitate to scratch the frivolous and humoristic surface to discover a more political, profound and tragic aspect to it. And enjoy this fun and fantastical journey!
Jennifer Menard
Clockwise 1. Handbag: House of Moschino, 2. Head Accessory: Giles Deacon, 3. Head Accessory: Deirdre Hawken, 4. Necklace and Earrings: Chloé
