The opening of Met’s spring 2019 exhibition

A look at the “Camp: Notes on Fashion”: the 2019 Met’s spring 2019 exhibition will open next May 9

Tuesday, 07 May 2019, by Antonella Reina

Bertrand Guyon (French, born 1965) for House of Schiaparelli (French, founded 1927). Ensemble, fall/winter 2018–19 haute couture. Courtesy of Schiaparelli. Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2019

This week all the eyes are on the opening of the new exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, celebrated as usual with the long-awaited Met Gala that took place yesterday night. “Camp: Notes on Fashion”, this is the 2019 Met’s annual Costume Institute Benefit theme was inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay, which examines how the elements of irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration are expressed in fashion. On view from May 9 through September 8, the exhibition explores the evolutions of camp aesthetics: «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 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. The show’s opening section will position Versailles as a “camp Eden” and address the concept of se camper—“to posture boldly”—in the royal courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. It will then focus on the figure of the dandy as a “camp ideal” and trace camp’s origins to the queer subcultures of Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Alessandro Michele (Italian, born 1972) for Gucci (Italian, founded 1921). Ensemble, fall/winter 2016–17. Courtesy of Gucci Historical Archive. Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018
Jun Takahashi (Japanese, born 1969) for Undercover (Japanese, founded 1990). Ensemble, fall/winter 2017–18. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2017 (2017.399a–d). Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2019
Marjan Pejoski (British, born Macedonia, 1968). Dress, fall/winter 2000–2001. Courtesy of Marjan Pejoski. Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2019
Franco Moschino (Italian, 1950–1994) for House of Moschino (Italian, founded 1983). Shirt, spring/summer 1991. Courtesy of Moschino. Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018
Thom Browne (American, born 1965). Ensembles, spring/summer 2017. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Thom Browne, 2018 (2018.134.1a–d [left]) (2018.134.2a–f [right]). Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018
Franco Moschino (Italian, 1950–1994) for House of Moschino (Italian, founded 1983). Dress, fall/winter 1989. Courtesy of Moschino. Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018