Just in case you hadn’t been wholly saturated by the Met “Camp”-themed Gala I have been asked to discuss. I shall oblige.
What am I talking about? Every year the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City throws a big party. People dress up to attend. Other people take their picture. Or, these days, PICTURES. What used to be a conventional socialite event has become a piece of theater for celebrities, fashion, and celebrities who wear fashion.
The question is (and has been thwacked about like a squash ball on Sundays in Connecticut), “What is ‘Camp’?” I have some thoughts.
Let’s first say what it’s not. It’s not, per se, the antithesis of good taste. Good taste is a nexus of one’s harmonious aesthetic and the socially appropriate. There’s no such thing as universal good taste; both visual and socio-emotional (is that a word?) paramters are culturally determined.
The antithesis of good taste, at least in the High WASP culture, is “kitsch.” Also “gaudy,” “vulgar,” and “bourgeois.” Hey, I’m not defending, just describing. My mother, she who wrote the “attractive,” and “very good-looking” handbook once gave a party themed, you guessed it, “Kitsch.” I hasten to add she was very warm and affectionate.
Camp can be kitsch but that’s not its point.
Here’s what I think. Camp is performing an aspect of your being, over-largely. In addition, the part you choose to perform is often something dangerous if kept small and hidden. You make it big to abrogate permission. Hence, drag queens. Hence, Divine, the Queen of Camp. Hence, Andre Leon Talley, sui generis.
I’ll give you my two nominations for Met Gala Most Camp–actually those that most resonate with me. In camp it’s all about the Me.
First, Kacey Musgrave as Barbie.
See, she risks Barbieness day-to-day. But by blowing her Barbie self up she surpasses it. That hairdryer is a purse; she’s a Grammy-winning pop/country music singer and songwriter.
Second, Darren Criss as modern-day Harlequin.
Dude is straight. But he played a gay man/boy to perfection in “Glee.” Next level, he’s half Filipino-American and half European-American. He serves up his own duality on a glittering platter and says, “Deal with it. I’m beautiful, you love me, and you can’t help yourself whatever you are.”
I have been wondering about my version of Camp. What aspect of my background or self might I draw out, like false eyelashes? Maybe full-Lilly Pulitzer, cropped pink chinos, gold sandals. But I think it would be about the hair, to be honest. I’d Grande-Dame it up, wear a blonde wig and headband, “shrimp earrings” – oh I know! Remember Reggie Darling’s Grande Dame fashion advice?
And how is the Grande Dame in me dangerous if kept silent? All longing for that which was might sour. One could argue that I started blogging to prevent that exact eventuality. One would say “one,” because, one does.
And there you have it. High WASP Camp, my own particular flavor. Too bad I missed the Gala;). Camp people always wink, don’t you know? And use “quotation marks.” Some meta-Camp right there.
Have a great weekend. Live it large.
33 Responses
Best description of camp I’ve read yet, Lisa. The Barbie as camp outfit WAS great, wasn’t it? So many weren’t. I read an article that said that she who must be obeyed when it comes to the Met Gala (i.e. Anna Wintour) never follows her own dictates and never wears a theme based outfit. Funny, that. Maybe that’s her version of “camp” I make the rules, I enforce the rules, and I don’t have to follow them.
P.S. One always loves your take on everything. :)
@Sue Burpee, I imagine that Anna is already as Anna as Anna wanna be, so, where do you go to camp that up, right?
One thanks you;).
The gala photos and some moments quite glorious. My favorite I think was Tiffani (?) of the black & white suit… I will look for a photo (if I remember!). Love your noms & discussion. Thank you for reflecting on this today for us.
@JB, My pleasure. I’ll take a look for the black and white suit – do you mean the one that had a face all down one side?
One, if one were so inclined, would wear head to toe pink and green. Perhaps with little whales? Lilly would be great. Don’t forget the pearls and Nantucket basket handbag.
Love your posts. Looking forward to the comments.
@MaryAnne, Thank you. And dear me please not critter pants. But, you might be right.
“”One would say “one,” because, one does.””
“L.O.L.” Dahling ;););)
@Rosie, Sweetie darling as Edina and Patsy would say!
I like your definition.
I have tended to define camp as: something, deliberately overdone, often to avoid accusations of “earnestness” or “taking things seriously” while still seizing the ability to dabble in the emotion or art form. With camp, as long as people understand it’s camp, no one is ever going to tip up their nose and say “is *that* the best you can do?” – so it offers an opportunity to take a whack at things or explore them (albeit in a lighter way) without either your Artistic Ability or your Coolness being called into question. I think this is maybe a more limited axis of Camp than your definition, though. (I also mostly only know one part of one city’s Camp, really, so that likely affects definitions…)
Also, Barbie is genius. And the harlequin is beautifully done and conceptually interesting. And I wouldn’t have seen either photo otherwise, so thank you for that! (sick this week, missed all the coverage)
@KC, My pleasure, and I think this, “so it offers an opportunity to take a whack at things or explore them (albeit in a lighter way) without either your Artistic Ability or your Coolness being called into question” is exactly right.
So Kim Kardasian in her nude Sophia Loren dress was camping up her signature style of baring all in wasp-waisted outfits? If her hair hadn’t been curly instead of it’s usual, IMO dull, ironed straight style, I think I would have thought it was just another day of her.
@RoseAG, I think it WAS just another day of her, and therefore not Camp at all.
Oh, damn, I thought we were going camping! What a disappointment.
@Shawn, I am deeply chagrined.
You’re the best. Period.
@Theodore Bouloukos, Aren’t you a nice person! Thank you!
I love it when you go all High Waspy on us. I know there is more, so much more in there; you just give us a small taster every now and then. Echoes of Grey Gardens. Keep going, more more more! Xxxx
@TJ, I thought I had used it all up, and then I got asked about Camp, and the floodgates opened;). Glad you enjoy it, I suspect it’s somewhat of a niche market, ha!
The event seems like a masquerade party. Costumes give people the opportunity to step outside of their personal norm. Nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation and fantasy.
@Susan, Yes, that’s what it has become, and no, nothing wrong at all.
It’s a tough one. There’s definitely High Camp to march alongside the High WASP.
I thought the campiest thing about the gala was that Cher performed in the Temple of Dendur.
@Charlotte K, Cher in the Temple of Dendur is the Most High Camp of all, especially had she done it dressed like Elizabeth Taylor.
As you note, High Wasp is already fairly camp – those faded red trousers with tiny whales, those cashmere twin-sets-and-pearls, those good tweeds …
But the campiest HW item I have ever seen is the lady’s mink shoulder shrug with little hidden pockets at each end. I inherited one from a friend of my mother, and when I asked what one might keep in these absurd pockets, she said, “My own mother kept her smelling salts in one and her folding lorgnette in the other, but I’ve always just kept a lighter and a lipstick. Very handy!”
I’ve worn this shoulder shrug a few times, most recently to a gathering of a local opera society, where it was much admired by ladies of a certain age (of whom I am one, by now!). The main comments touched on their own happy memories of wearing said garment, but none of them mentioned a folding lorgnette…
@Victoire, My mother had a folding lorgnette! Which is to say, one of us children will soon own a folding lorgnette? But of course;).
This is just the best!!! As for DIVINE…..the epitome of camp, and I am freshly back from Baltimore where I visited Divine’s gravesite to pay homage to his greatness!!
Thanks for this fab post!!
@Marcia Morse, You are so welcome, all bow to Divine!
Lisa –
You win the High Wasp Sweepstakes, with your very own ancestral folding lorgnette! I trust you and your sibs will share it equally and not come to blows over whose turn it is to sport it about.
I’m laughing even as I visualize you snapping that lorgnette into shape and perching it on your nose, the better to stare anyone down …
Love always,
V.
Laughter is the only possible response. I should do a selfie for the blog, ha! Also it’s possible that Mom lost the ancestral one and this one is a reproduction or a replacement, and no, I am not kidding:).
THANKS FOR THE RUN DOWN!I HAD NO IDEA WHAT CAMP WAS AND FELT VERY OUT OF IT!I DIDNOT BOTHER TO EVEN WATCH THE PARADE……..
Lets get back to Gorgeous gowns and black tie!
ON another note my GARDEN IS UP ON MY BLOG!
MORE RAIN TONIGHT !!!!!
I feel it will be SHORT LIVED MY GARDEN THAT IS………….XX
@LA CONTESSA, Oh I will run right over to see! Your garden is just gorgeous.
What fun, and a great analysis as well.
I love your definition of camp. Trying to go back through the outfits with that in mind. Agree with a few here that Anna doesn’t have to be anything but Anna. I had thought Diane VF nailed it with the Statue of Liberty, but not by your wonderful definition and not now that we know she had a statement to make with the outfit.
In small town, central Maine in the late 1980s, I asked at a hardware store/five-and-dime for “small plastic bottles, such as one might use if one were traveling.” And I was mocked. For all my Ivy League degrees, strict ideas about Christmas (it must be THE SAME every year, and irony is not allowed), and (now) second home in Maine, I have never really believed I might be “high WASP.” (My dad was raised Catholic; my mother, working class.) But I think this may have clinched it! –R
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