Most people don’t know what the Met Gala is, except that it comes around once a year and even the least fabulous among us get the chance to critique the fashion choices of our favourite celebrities.
The Met Gala, also known formally as Costume Institute Gala, is a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Benefit in New York. It happens annually on the first Monday of May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The gala heralds the opening of the costume and fashion exhibit. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious and exclusive social events in the world, some even call it the Oscars of fashion. Celebrities and fashion designers are encouraged to flex their creativity according to the theme set every year. Past themes include Vanity Fair (1977-78), Christian Dior (1996-97), and Superheroes (2007-08). Last year’s theme was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which I’m sure you remember caused quite the stir about cultural appropriation and the church.
The theme for this year’s Met Gala was ‘Camp: Notes on Fashion’. In fashion, camp refers to an aesthetic style that is unique and appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. In other words, Harper Finkle from Wizards of Waverly Place would have stolen the show. Celebrities were encouraged to dress as outrageously, exaggerated, and artificially as they could.
I have ranked my favourite looks from the 2019 Met Gala:
- Lady Gaga
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Singer Lady Gaga stole the show. I really could end the article here. She stripped down into four different outfits, had an entourage of assitants help her undress, and acted out each outfit with props. All hail the Queen of Camp!
- Zendaya
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Oh Zendaya, when do you ever disappoint the red carpet? From Joan of Arc at 2018’s Met Gala to Cinderella 2019’s Met Gala, I was blown away by the actress’s bold fashion choices! Not to mention her dress lighting up at the smoke of her Fairy Godmother’s wand coupled with her losing her glass slipper… Everything came together with a bibbity-bobbity-BANG!
- Jared Leto
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You know the song ‘Heads Will Roll’? Well, singer Jared Leto brought it home by carrying his own head on the red carpet! Although it reminded me too much of ‘iPsycho’ episode of iCarly when Gibby carried his fake Gibby head with him everywhere…
- Ezra Miller
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I had high expectations for actor Ezra Miller and was nothing short of mesmerized by his dedication to detail and extravagance: Seven eyes! The total unpredictability of his makeup was mind-blowing.
- Billy Porter
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If there was ever a more magical moment, it must have been in heaven. Actor Billy Porter was a vision in gold and a beaded face mask being carried by six shirtless men in an ode to Diana Ross’s ‘Mahogany’. Now that’s what I call camp.
- Michael Urie
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Actor Michael Urie had the final word: Half man, half woman. Literally. Half of his outfit was a tuxedo with the other half being a frilly pink dress. Am I calling him the King of Camp? Absolutely!
- Kacey Musgraves
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Barbie, possibly the biggest fashion icon in doll form, was the inspiration behind singer Kacey Musgraves outfit. This brought out the little girl in me and fulfilled my dream of seeing a life-sized Barbie.
- Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra
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Many compared singer Nick Jonas to Lord Baelish from Game of Thrones what with his moustache and intimidating eyes. But model Priyanka Chopra took all the attention with her teased hair, gilt crown, and white eyebrows.
- Janelle Monae
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Singer Janelle Monae pulled out all the stops by transforming her left boob into a motorised blinking eye! The Barbie pink paired with the tuxedo black of her dress was a salute to camp fashion.
- Lily Collins
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Actress Lily Collins has been admired for her grace and beauty, and this came through at the 2019 Met Gala. Her big doe eyes, statement eyebrows, and girly floral headdress were the defining features of her outfit.
- Katy Perry
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If Zendaya was Cinderella, then singer Katy Perry was Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast! Adorned with candles and silver, she dazzled the red carpet.
- Lupita Nyong’o
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Blockbuster actress from Black Panther and Us seemed to bear every colour on the neon highliter spectrum. All I could think of when I saw her outfit was ‘camp canary’!
- Emily Ratajkowski
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All anyone on Twitter could talk about was Emily Ratajkowski’s non-existent tummy in her Met Gala dress. The actress looked phenomenally fit and toned as she bared her midrift.
- Kendall and Kylie Jenner
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The youngest siblings of the Kardashian/Jenner clan came dressed as two evil stepsisters. Many took to the internet to compare them to the stepsisters from Cinderella, and this lead to Zendaya being the princess, Lady Gaga being the fairy godmother, and Cardi B being the evil stepmother (she wore a red ensemble that screamed ‘fairytale evil’).
- Florence Welch
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Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the Machine, has always been the bohemian princess of my dreams. I like to imagine that in her free time she skips through daisy fields, casts spells with warlocks, and brews tea with witches. I did not expect that, in all her bohemian dreaminess, that she would be able to pull off camp fashion, but I was surprisingly mistaken!