Met Gala attendees should’ve realised being camp is easier done than intellectualised

A cultural historian at the University of Sussex, Andy Medhurst avers that “Trying to define camp is like attempting to sit in the corner of a circular room.” No wonder the outfits at the Met Gala this year in New York — whose theme this year was ‘Camp: Notes on Fashion’ — went round in circles.

Some took it to mean fairy-tale exaggeration, others just exaggeration. For clues about what to wear, the rest probably did a speedread of Susan Sontag’s essay ‘Notes on Camp’, where she says camp “sees everything in quotation marks”, is probably the most apt description of the ethos.

Actually, they need not have tried so hard because being camp has always been a great way to make a mark on the red carpet — and even the pink one at the Met Gala — without being too intellectual about it.


In fact, intellectualising a ‘look’ quite spoils the unique appeal of the spontaneously camp. It leads to highbrow disputes over whether the LGBTQ angle of camp has been adequately acknowledged and deconstructing an ensemble for meaning when it, in fact, may not have any.

Intentional exaggeration, of course, is difficult when normal ‘dressing-up’ very often verges on overstatement. So, it is not surprising that in India, the word is not naturally associated with over-the-top dressing; terror camps, sports coaching camps and tent camps are the usual allusions.