In pictures: Shedding gender stereotypes, Met Gala offers refreshing looks

NEW YORK: Consistent with this year's theme of the Met Gala — Celebrating Camp — celebrities arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and turned a lot of eyes.

The 2019 iteration of the highly-anticipated event brought out even more refreshing looks, destroying gender roles and leaving pieces of the shattered masculinity strewn across the red carpet, ignored (as they should be).

The annual extravaganza, geared to raise funds for the museum's Costume Institute, encouraged outrageous outfits, the more the better for the A-listers strut their stuff in an eye-popping manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on 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 Monday at a press event about the exhibition before 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.

"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."

—COVER IMAGE: Billy Porter attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, US, May 6, 2019. AFP/Neilson Barnard