Sometimes, Anna Wintour chooses the perfect co-chair for the Met Gala. That was the case last night, when Lady Gaga was one of the first celebrities to arrive, which is usually what happens for the co-chairs. Gaga made sure to get there early so she would have the pink carpet to herself, and she put on what amounted to a 20-minute performance art piece where she took off layer after layer of Brandon Maxwell looks until she was just in her underwear, a pair of fishnets and some shoes. It was very CAMP.
Every one of Gaga’s looks was Brandon Maxwell, and at first I was like “oh, she’s trying to be campy AND pretty” because a couple of the dresses were very flattering and not all that campy-spectacular. But taken as a whole look, you have to take it into account that the pretty looks were meant to be “shed,” and you also have to look at her styling and the campy performance as a whole. She knew what she was doing, and she put some thought into giving the maximum campy effort.
Also: the champagne cart was a great touch. Did she actually give away champagne or was it just for show?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
It’s amazing how few people (locals on twitter, not fashion sites/fashion bloggers) don’t get the theme of “Camp.” I figured it would happen, but still was surprised at how few people bother to google before commenting.
I saw people dragging Billy Porter (who was my #1), Gaga (who was my #3), Katy Perry, and Lupita for being “ridiculous and attention getting” and I’m like…bish, that’s the point of Camp? Katy’s ridiculous burger dress that she wore inside, Gaga playing strip club 90s Trixie Mattell, Billy getting carried in like the King he is…
Anyway, I loved it but Gaga should have had a leotard type lingerie underneath instead of just a bra and panties to keep up with the 90s/80s Barbie bit.
Who is your #2?
Being irritated that people wore attention-getting outfits to the Met Gala (especially when ‘camp’ is the theme) would be sort of like being irritated that people wore black to a funeral or swimwear to the beach. I really like what Gaga did with this.
You can be campy and pretty. Gaga was in her element. Billy P ruled! Bette Midler and her daughter and DVF were also among the best. It was a great carpet.
Gaga’s whole look and vibe is perfect. I very much want a wheelbarrow of champagne.
Someone please explain camp to me 🙏🏼
Me too please!
The dictionary definitions Google gives me are:
“ostentatiously and extravagantly effeminate” and
“deliberately exaggerated and theatrical behaviour or style”.
I suspect that in queer culture the word has much more nuance, but for the purposes of evaluating Met Gala looks these are probably two useful phrases to keep in mind!
Thank you very much 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Camp is sort of over the top and cheesy, but in a fun and ironic way. Think of like…Elton John’s old costumes from the 1970’s, where he’d be wearing huge feathered shoulders, or a sequined baseball uniform. It’s fashion that some would call tacky, but it’s meant to poke fun at how serious fashion can be.
So basically anyone who showed up looking like they could be going to the Oscars or the Emmy’s or whatnot missed the point. Billy Porter, Celine Dion, Bette Midler, even Gaga…they got it right.
She is perfect for this year‘s theme.
Really? I thought that all those changes only to end up in lingerie was underwhelming. Her first look was perfection.
This is soooo 2007 for Gaga I’m meh about it.
And That bra and panties look is so Britney Spears at the Vma’s I just can’t with every look here.
So once she was done with the striptease, what did she wear inside for the rest of the event?
I didn’t hate Gaga’s looks but I find her exhausting so the fact that E! spent so much time on her wore me out. I did love her shoes. My favorite Gaga is Mother Monster Gaga so the shoes brought me back to the good ol’ days.
Leave it Gaga to nail the camp theme. I can’t imagine how good it felt to take off those eyelashes at the end of the night. I get full body satisfaction from just peeling off the regular sized ones 😛
The very full pink dress looks like Mother Hubbard. I wanted little children to scamper out from under the skirt.
The pink dress and hair vaguely reminded me of Angelyne, the Hollywood self-promoter that has been around for decades. Gaga’s look and performance were perfectly campy and she seemed pretty happy.
I don’t think there’s a “winner” or favorite for me. So many people went all out and had fun, and I think that’s great.
This reminds me-after winning her Oscar how extra she was backstage with photographers and her posing, that would’ve been perfect for this event but it was the Oscars so it was over the top. Her doing this here fit though
I just found this whole stunt to be obnoxious. All of the dresses were boring. The changes were odd and took too long. It was 15 minutes of self importance that I can’t get back.