Met Gala Announces Official Theme and Hosts For 2019 Exhibition

Lady Gaga. Photo by Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock (9893990dz)

We’re used to seeing a bunch of campy outfits every time the Met Gala rolls around, but they’re going to be welcomed in 2019. “Camp: Notes on Fashion” will serve as the official theme for next year’s exhibition.

According to the official website of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the upcoming exhibition will explore the origins of the camp aesthetic, and how it has evolved from a place of marginality to become an important influence on mainstream culture.

This exciting theme was framed around Susan Sontag’s seminal essay Notes on Camp from 1964. The exhibition is set to explore all the ways fashion designers engaged with camp in a myriad of compelling, humorous, and sometimes incongruous ways.

Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute, revealed they picked this theme because they felt it’s very relevant to the current cultural climate. He believes this theme is very timely because we’re going through an extreme camp moment as a society, but we shouldn’t forget sophistication and power that comes with it.

Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibit will take place from May 9 to September 8, 2019. The grand opening will be marked on May 6 with the annual Met Gala, hosted by Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and Serena Williams.