The Met Gala—“Fashion’s Biggest Night”—is responsible for some of the wildest, most memeable celebrity moments of the year. This year’s theme, “Camp: Notes on Fashion” was initially worrying: Would attendees understand it? Does anyone understand it? But it yielded an entertaining, impressive range of looks. From Barbie drag to Cinderella cosplay (yes, it was a weird night), here are the winners and losers of the 2019 Met Gala. Loser: A Gala Without Rihanna The reigning queen of the Met Gala was nowhere to be seen on the pink carpet, despite countless social media pleas and even a poorly Photoshopped image of her “look” this year. Luckily, there was no shortage of on-theme and fully committed divas willing to temporarily fill Rihanna’s shoes. Cardi B showed out in a bedazzled headdress and quilted train; Janelle Monáe somehow managed to wear four Christian Siriano hats at once; and even Kacey Musgraves threw her hat in the ring by literally dressing like Barbie, hair-dryer purse and all. But still: No Rihanna. Her absence was resounding. Winner: Perfectly Campy Entrances Anyone trying to keep up on social media when Lady Gaga arrived at the Met Gala had an unexpectedly hard time. She first appeared in this voluminous Brandon Maxwell gown, arm in arm with the designer, with various umbrella-toting men prancing around her. Then she took off the pink overcoat to reveal a structured black gown… then removed that to reveal another slinky hot-pink dress… then removed that to finally reveal a classic Gaga lingerie set and death-defying heels. The entrance was performance art that could be challenged mere moments later by only Pose’s Billy Porter, who casually entered on top of a dais carried by six shirtless, gilded men. Everyone: What's the point of the Met without Rihanna? BILLY PORTER: THE POINT! pic.twitter.com/7sBr3aq2FQ — Jasmyn Lawson (@JasmynBeKnowing) May 6, 2019 The Met Gala is not a contest, but also it is, and Billy Porter won it. Loser: Disney’s Copyright Laws If Rihanna is the queen of the Met Gala, Zendaya is the princess, and lord knows she embraced that mantle this year with full Cinderella cosplay. Her gown lit up, her stylist acted as her fairy godmother—complete with smoke effects—and she left one slipper behind on the pink carpet. Zendaya wasn’t the only one to go Disney: Katy Perry went full Lumiere in a light-up chandelier dress, which was both on-theme and a blatant fire hazard. Katie Holmes also showed up in a purple Zac Posen gown that was eerily similar to what Yzma wore in The Emperor’s New Groove—a camp icon if ever there was one! Winner: Targaryen Chic OK, so maybe dragon inspired fashion isn’t quite on theme, but when you look as incredible as Saoirse Ronan does, I can’t be mad about it. She wasn’t alone in taking her cues from Daenerys Targaryen, either: Natasha Lyonne opted for the Khaleesi shoulder-pads look, while Florence Welch went full dragon queen in this incredible sculpted cape. So happy my mom @florencemachine came down from heaven to bless us at the #metgala pic.twitter.com/dRkkED30Bs — NYLON (@NylonMag) May 6, 2019 As for Gemma Chan, she was neither strictly on theme nor particularly Targaryen inspired. But I’m just saying, if Dany rolled up to King’s Landing in a fit like this last week, they’d have opened the gates for her and handed over the keys. Loser: The Same Boring Models Every year, the same models get invited to the Met Gala, and every year, they ignore the theme and wear whatever slinky, classically pretty dress they want. Gisele and Gisele’s husband (whoever you are), I’m looking at you. Gaga is out here going through four different outfits in 10 minutes, and you can’t muster up anything better than this? Winner: Creepy-Ass Optical Illusions Ah yes … the boys who very much did not dial it in. Shoutout to Ezra Miller, who I knew I could count on to freak me out while also giving me life. As for Jared Leto, who has maybe never half-assed anything in his life, he did not break that streak tonight. Observe: Campy? Yes. Nightmare fuel? Absolutely. Winner: Funky ’70s Style Apologies to Dakota, but Elle Fanning has always been the more fashionable Fanning, and she nailed the camp theme from high pony to the tips of her… keychain manicure? Elle wasn’t alone in interpreting camp via vibrant ’70s looks: Cara Delevingne wore a fruit headpiece and rainbow Dior jumpsuit; Dua Lipa went full psychedelic Lisa Frank; Lily Collins trotted out her specific brand of vintage costume styling; and of course, Lupita Nyong’o showed up with pastel wings and hair full of afro picks, as you do. Loser: Low-Effort Men Boys will be boys, and by “boys” I mean “utterly uninspiring and incapabable of devoting the time, effort, and creativity that this event (and I, personally) deserves.” Yes, some men did show up on theme to the Met Gala—cochair Harry Styles wore a custom Gucci look, complete with a pussy bow, casual nip-slips, a pearl earring, and heeled boots. Harold, you can stay. Beyond Harry and a few choice others, however, the men disappointed, as they always do. Frank Ocean apparently interpreted camp as the “pitching a tent” kind, wearing a hooded windbreaker that looked like one (that kumbaya shit). Max Minghella had the nerve to accompany Elle Fanning in the most boring navy suit I’ve ever seen. Taron Edgerton and Rami Malek just played two of the campiest rock stars ever—Elton John and Freddie Mercury, respectively—and yet both showed up in basic black suits like they were going to the SAG awards. Even Internet Boyfriend Richard Madden dialed it in (while still looking distressingly handsome, I’ll admit). Guys, we gotta do better. What would Rihanna say?<doc-sep>As with most things at the top tier of American fashion, behind the Met Gala, you’ll find Anna Wintour. The Costume Institute now bears the name of the legendary Vogue editor, and its annual party is understood within the industry to be under her near-complete control. Wintour took over the event in 1999, and since then, she has guided its transformation from a well-regarded slot on socialites’ spring calendars to a multimillion-dollar public spectacle. Wintour is far more than a fashion editor. Perhaps her most important role is as a power broker, both among New York City’s elite and in the global fashion industry writ large. She has a reputation for ruling with an iron fist, and the Met Gala’s cultural ascendance is evidence of how effective her approach can be. Unlike many charity galas in which ticket sales are open to the public, only invited guests can buy tickets to the Met, which means no one attends without Wintour’s blessing. She also approves the clothing choices of high-profile guests, which frequently include Oscar winners, tech billionaires, legendary supermodels, and actual royalty. If your favorite star’s look underwhelms, it’s probably because Wintour wanted it that way. And she hardly ever makes more than a halfhearted gesture at the theme with her own red-carpet outfits. Read: End times at the Met ball Common criticisms of the Met Gala red carpet mirror those often levied against Wintour’s Vogue: that it could be more fun, more creative, more expansive in vision and execution, more inclusive of people at the margins of fashion’s thin, white, wealthy core. Wintour is 69 years old, and every year or so, rumors of her imminent retirement set the gossip mill churning. Her eventual departure is cause for both hope and worry: New leadership could breathe life into an American fashion industry that’s lost much of its global prestige in the past decade, but it’s also not entirely clear who has the gravitas to replace the woman who’s been the country’s most important guiding fashion force for more than 30 years. But it’s too simple to lay the success or failure of any particular red carpet entirely at Wintour’s feet. What the Met Gala’s shortcomings often make uncomfortably clear is that the boldest, most exhilarating ideas are rarely generated from within the fashion industry itself, or by those traditionally allowed to walk red carpets. Two recent themes—this year’s camp and 2013’s punk—are both aesthetic worlds that exist as an oppositional force to traditional, classist notions of good taste. Camp, in particular, requires a humor and joy that doesn’t come naturally to those worried about decorum. It’s the aesthetic invention of black drag queens, and it can’t be fully realized in any environment where a wealthy white person gets to decide what everyone wears. And that controlled environment doesn’t just describe the Met Gala—it’s also corporate fashion at large.<doc-sep>“I’m never going to take it off,” Celine Dion said. Mugging for a reporter’s iPhone camera with a voice you might associate with Dalmatian coats and Cruella De Vil , she repeated herself. “I’m never going to take it off,” she said, head lowered, tone rising. “It’s mine! All mine!” The subject wasn’t what she was wearing at the moment — a green metallic silk jumpsuit from Isabel Marant and Alexander Wang ankle boots — but an outfit by Oscar de la Renta, the one she will have on when the paparazzi go berserk on the Met Gala red carpet on Monday night. It is a creation that would seem as if designed specifically to test the internet’s breaking point.<doc-sep>
ROBERTA SMITH I also had high hopes for this show, without quite knowing what I was hoping for. I reread Sontag, and by the end, despite her brilliance in identifying it, she makes camp seem fairly large and elastic — and it’s become only more so. Also there’s the issue of being outdated in terms of contemporary culture. FRIEDMAN The justification for doing this now, in an institution like the Met, seems to be that in periods of great divisions and dissent, camp, with its multiple interpretations and exaggerated aesthetic, rises to the fore. Camp also functions as a safe space for marginalized groups to engage in self-expression and cultural commentary. Yet I did not feel, looking at the clothes — even the Viktor & Rolf meme-bait tulle bombs that I just saw on the runway in January — that what I was seeing was a visual expression of this moment. Though I did get a sense of its place in a historical and artistic tradition. SMITH What would Sontag have cited as camp today, when we seem to be up to our necks in it? Still, even before rereading “Notes on ‘Camp,’” a thumb-through of the show’s lavish if cumbersome catalog excited me. It raised two very art-specific ideas. First, that camp begins with the invention of the contrapposto pose — one hip thrust out, elbow cocked — in Greek sculpture, which seems brilliant, as well as apt because of the Greek acceptance of love between men. Second, there was the notion that the Pre-Raphaelite painters were camp — innocent or inadvertent camp, according to Sontag . This idea made me much more sympathetic to the excess and overt displays of skills of these artists, although I’m not sure how they would have taken it. So I expected the show to shake me up. But once beyond the historical material, it looked surprisingly predictable and not very coded, either. FRIEDMAN Funny, I also thought the beginning was by far the most compelling section. I loved seeing that little bronze classical nude of Belvedere Antinous from 1630 (attributed to Pietro Tacca) in the entrance gallery with the Mapplethorpe photo of the marble Antinous from 1987, the Vivienne Westwood tights with the mirrored olive leaf over the crotch and the photograph from Hal Fischer’s 1977 “Gay Semiotics.” All of these male nudes have their elbows cocked out from one hip in that classic exaggerated pose of “se camper.” That, to me, was a powerful argument for camp as a cultural through-line.