The Costume Institute to celebrate 'camp' in fashion for spring 2019 exhibition

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Apr 15, 2019

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute is set to bring fashion history's greatest moments of exuberance and theatricality to life through its spring 2019 exhibition 'Camp: Notes on Fashion'.

The exhibition was made possible by Gucci with additional support from Condé Nast, and will run from May 9 through September 8 of 2019. 

According to the institute, Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay 'Notes on ‘Camp' will provide the framework for the exhibition, which will examine how fashion designers have used their trade as a vehicle to engage with camp. The exhibition will feature approximately 250 objects, including womenswear and menswear, as well as sculptures, paintings, and drawings dating from the 17th century to the present.

Featured pieces will include work from designers like Virgil Abloh, Giorgio Armani, Ashish, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Dapper Dan for Gucci, Demna Gvasalia and more. 

“Camp’s disruptive nature and subversion of modern aesthetic values has often been trivialized, but this exhibition will reveal that it has had a profound influence on both high art and popular culture,” said Max Hollein, director of The Met. “By tracing its evolution and highlighting its defining elements, the show will embody the ironic sensibilities of this audacious style, challenge conventional understandings of beauty and taste, and establish the critical role that this important genre has played in the history of art and fashion.”

The opening of Camp: Notes on Fashion will be preceded by The Costume Institute Benefit, also known as the Met Gala, on May 6. The gala's co-chairs will be Lady Gaga, Alessandro Michele, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, and Anna Wintour.