Lady Gaga stunned Monday at New York’s Met Gala, embodying the extravaganza’s “camp” theme as she peeled back look after garish look at the fete thrown by the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art that sees Hollywood and fashion collide. The 2019 carpet — pink, for the occasion — into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose yearly bash welcomes over-the-top looks that skew to a theme, was even more of an eye-popping doozy than usual thanks to this year’s concept. Gold, trains, fringe, fur, blonde wigs and inspirations from drag as well as camp legends Cher and David Bowie were trending on the pink carpet celebrating fashion so bad it’s good. Superstar Gaga set a high bar, bringing a shape-shifting look sure to spawn a thousand memes. The pop diva played Russian doll as her entourage unzipped three different looks in hot pink and black, until she sported nothing but glittering black lingerie, fishnets, vertiginous platform boots and wildly long spiky gold false eyelashes. Singer Katy Perry was literally glowing: the superstar dressed as a candelabra chandelier dripping with crystals, a clear reference to the Lumiere character from Beauty and the Beast. Rap star Cardi B brought her own red carpet, donning a curve-hugging oxblood Thom Browne gown embellished with feathers that radiated out to form a lengthy circular train, a look she capped with a bugle-bead headpiece. Pop futurist Janelle Monae had jaws dropping with an elaborate black, white and pink number that recalled a cubist painting — complete with a Cleopatra-style eye covering one breast whose lavishly long eyelashes blinked and a tower of hats that would inspire envy in the Madhatter himself. Barbie girl The gala kicks off the Met’s annual major fashion exhibition, with seats going for $35,000 a piece. Attendance is by invitation only, and word has it that Vogue editor extraordinaire Anna Wintour has the final say over each person on the guest list. Gucci designer Alessandro Michele, British singer Harry Styles and tennis superstar Serena Williams joined Wintour and Gaga to co-chair the event, which raises money for its Costume Institute. Country superstar Kacey Musgraves rolled up in a bright pink Barbie corvette and was dressed as the iconic doll to boot, sporting a skin-tight Moschino pink zippered dress, with matching cat-eye sunglasses and a feather boa. Lupita Nyong’o meanwhile embodied the theme donning a gown topped off with a rainbow-colored plume, matching fluffy fan and gold Afro picks in her Marie Antoinette-style beehive updo. A coterie of men also ran with the concept, including actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who wore an all-white suit with an ascot tie and glittering green brooch. Billy Porter, meanwhile, had his mic-drop moment with a fabulous entrance that saw the performer arrive on a gold litter hoisted by six shirtless men, before he got down to show off his sparkling set of wings. ‘Subversive’ So what exactly is “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 at a press event ahead of 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, a shower head necklace designed by the late Karl Lagerfeld for Chloe in the 1980s. “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.” The exhibition “Camp: Notes on Fashion” — a play on the title of Sontag’s essay — opens to the public at the Met on Thursday and runs through September 8.<doc-sep>And showing everyone how it was done at the very start of the night was singer Lady Gaga, who arrived in a billowing pink outfit which was not quite what it seemed at first glance.<doc-sep>
Rapper Cardi B swept by in a stunning red quilted dress accentuated with a matching sequin headpiece, feathers and a train that took up much of the pink carpet, actor and singer Jared Leto was accompanied by his own head and singer and songwriter Katy Perry came as a candled chandelier at the crazy, campy Met Gala on Monday. Lady Gaga used the carpet as a runway and a changing station – earning giggles and claps from journalist Anna Wintour – and actress and singer Tiffany Haddish brought fried chicken in a plastic bag as many of the A-list guests worked the camp theme to the max. That included Zendaya, whose Cinderella Tommy Hilfiger dress went aglow with the wave of a magic wand. She dropped one of her see-through slippers on the way up the long staircase at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the cocktail hour. Also princessy, of the saucy variety: rapper Nicki Minaj in a short pink Prabal Gurung dress with yards and yards to her train, the last star to walk the carpet. Katy Perry, whose look was created by Jeremy Scott for Moschino, said she wanted to be “of the light,” though she appeared concerned her heavy looking headpiece would topple as she smiled and walked precariously up the stairs, designer Diane von Furstenberg briefly in her orbit as Lady Liberty. Perry, model Bella Hadid dished, “had to be trucked here in a UPS truck”. Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski channelled Cher in a barely there silver dress by Dundas and wing-like headpiece with feathers and hanging crystal strands by the House of Malakai. Tom Ford dressed model-turned actress Gemma Chan, who wore a custom headdress inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and Versace created a jaw-dropping sparkler for actress and singer Jennifer Lopez. She wore a 129.48-carat purple and diamond sapphire by Harry Winston around her neck. Actress Lupita Nyong’o spent four hours getting ready in a rainbow, cool chick getup, her hair high and packed with golden Afro picks.