IN PICTURES | A-listers go OTT with their 'Camp' Met Gala outfits
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Lady Gaga stunned on Monday at New York's Met Gala, embodying the extravaganza's "camp" theme as she peeled back look after garish look at the fete thrown by the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art that sees Hollywood and fashion collide.
The 2019 carpet - pink, for the occasion - into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose yearly bash welcomes over-the-top looks that skew to a theme, was even more of an eye-popping doozy than usual thanks to this year's concept.
Gold, trains, fringe, fur, blonde wigs and inspirations from drag as well as camp legends Cher and David Bowie were trending on the pink carpet celebrating fashion so bad it's good.
Superstar Gaga set a high bar, bringing a shape-shifting look sure to spawn a thousand memes.
The pop diva played Russian doll as her entourage unzipped three different looks in hot pink and black, until she sported nothing but glittering black lingerie, fishnets, vertiginous platform boots and wildly long spiky gold false eyelashes.
Image: Angela Weiss / AFP
BARBIE GIRL
The gala kicks off the Met's annual major fashion exhibition, with seats going for $35k (about R506k) a piece.
Attendance is by invitation only, and word has it that Vogue editor extraordinaire Anna Wintour has the final say over each person on the guest list.
Gucci designer Alessandro Michele, British singer Harry Styles and tennis superstar Serena Williams joined Wintour and Gaga to co-chair the event, which raises money for its Costume Institute.
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Image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
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Image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue/Getty Images
'SUBVERSIVE'
So what exactly is "camp?"
The museum's exhibition is based on Notes on Camp, an essay written in 1964 by American author Susan Sontag.
"Camp is by nature subversive... confronting and challenging the status quo," the Costume Institute's head curator Andrew Bolton said at a press event ahead of the gala.
"In the end, the purpose of camp is to put a smile on our faces and a warm glow in our hearts."
Some of the items in the exhibition might best explain the theme: the "swan dress" worn by Bjork to the Oscars, a glittering costume worn by flamboyant US singer Liberace, a shower head necklace designed by the late Karl Lagerfeld for Chloe in the 1980s.
Image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
"We're experiencing a resurgence of camp - not just in fashion, but in culture in general," said Bolton.
"Camp tends to come to the fore in moments of social and political instability. The 1960s was one such moment, as were the 1980s."
The exhibition Camp: Notes on Fashion - a play on the title of Sontag's essay - opens to the public at the Met on Thursday and runs through September 8.