Thread by @vandroidhelsing

My thoughts so far on the Met Gala:
Cecil you can do better than that I hope

wait okay yes here we go here we goooooooo

https://twitter.com/etnow/status/1125519713054756864

So far everyone is exquisite, but each of them should essentially be their own parade, and only Billy Porter and Lady Gaga have really pushed that at all.

see, this is b e a u t i f u l, but I don't see Camp, I see Very Good Red Carpet?

if Liza Minnelli would wear it to bed, it is camp

my heart leaped out of my chest

getting Easter With Lesbian Grandma vibes

Natalie you have severely misunderstood the evening

Laverne here with the Sea Witch look we all needed

you know that one Pushing Daisies episode with the bees and Missi Pyle?

The evening so far is just anything goes, so I am giving a pass to styles I ordinarily dislike. It's extravagant, visually noisy, with more textures than a chef's salad—go forth and be blessed

I'm incoherent with joy

PINK. POODLES.

CELINE GOING FULL ZIEGFELD, THIS OLD HEART CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH

This is not camp. This is a lake cabin you buy with grandma's money and think you're roughing it because the local general store doesn't have your brand of gin

DEVELOPING STORY:

Love this so much, but I have to say most of the menswear so far is great rather than campy. I think the theme of the evening has loosened them up a little, but when it comes to men on the red carpet, that just means putting in some effort, rather than going an extra mile.

yesssSSSSS

if this is the best you can do for a camp-themed gala, you need to sit down with a weird cocktail, read an old Symbolist novel, and be quiet

her: fine
him: the "fun" pastor at a megachurch

Mindy looks STUNNING

I like it but I want just a little more from it, somehow

many of us have been beating the "not camp" drum so hard it's like being at a Rammstein concert, but for real: put this at a movie premiere where it belongs

Is dressing as a skeleton camp? I don't know, but I appreciate the boldness!

RICHARD NO
even your GQ photoshoot was more camp than this

I've only seen Auntie Mame once, is this a Mame thing, it feels like a Mame thing

I am 91% sure Marlene Dietrich wore this in The Scarlet Empress

[types "is it camp? idk but it looks good" for the thousandth time]

a
ma
zing

when you've got the Met Gala at 7 and a dinner for your local nonprofit arts organization at 8

I see someone else got the sea witch memo

this is incredibly lovely and delicate and bold; it is not easy to nail color like this. I won't even sully my praise by whispering "is it camp"

He is dressed as an old Key West hotel that everyone in the 1950s Knows About, if You Get My Drift. Owned and managed by two very tan middle-aged men. Not a lot of women staying there. I love it.

why are you doing this to me
why have you chosen to affront me, personally
why is this happening to me, in my specific life

Yes, more of this please, all the time, on everyone.

Florence ALWAYS comes through for us

this evening was made for Baz Luhrman and he knows it
and look at Catherine Martin, channeling her inner late-period Lucille Ball

boys from the school that Tuxedo Gown Billy Porter is head of

Frank has let me down. An outfit like this says only "Event Security"

yes thank you, more feathers on this red carpet

oh god, this is so tacky. but is it tacky in a good way, or am I, as ever, embarrassed by America

Tiffany Haddish is so reliable.

LOVE. What a great palette.

camp is difficult as a concept because all of these outfits should contain some aspect a person could reasonably object to. There should be a point of failure. For a lot of them, including several I've loved, that point does not exist. They're flawless. They should be flawed.

But, as a lot of people have been saying, they can't be intentionally flawed. They have to be so sincere that it's laughable. They have to be so extravagantly, achingly, embarrassingly themselves that essence becomes artifice.
That is…tough, when it's treated as a costume.

…hm.
I dunno.
Is…is this okay
Is this the Met Gala version of chopsticks in the hair

of all people I'd expect to show up to a CAMP-THEMED MET GALA in a BASIC TUXEDO, Bob Mackie is the last one

[extremely "Theoden betrayed me" voice] Bob Mackie betrayed me

I will fight Darren Criss for this jacket and I will win, because while one of us has a great body from years of exercise and musical theater, the other one of us is desperate and covetous

I don't know what I expected from Kyle MacLachlan but this is still a letdown.

NOT 👏 CAMP 👏

omg

very Fashion Tinkerbell, not very camp

this is so 20s kitsch and I love it. like if Florenz Ziegfeld did Hans Christian Andersen

Leto is garbage but this Priest of Elven Sex-Church thing is incredible. I am conflicted.

Bye bye mein lieber herr
farewell mein lieber herr
it was a fine affair, but now it's over

love the shoes but Rami joins a legion of men who misunderstood the memo as "wearing color"

I know that there is life after death because I am now tweeting from beyond the grave.

HELLO.

feels a bit Vegas Cowboy but if that's the goal he should be wearing a bedazzled cowboy hat and boots that say Reno Cinderella

—hm
o-okay—?

goddammit Hailey get your life together

acceptable.

is it camp if you're essentially dressed as a secondary character from a teen movie that would nowadays be called camp

once again I am torn, because 1) this is so beautiful, he is so beautiful, it's all beautiful but 2) this is not campy, this is cool. the cool gala is next door

If the Cecil thing at the start of the thread confuses you, here. I'm sorry.
harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=2…

I just
as if he were a cup of hot tea, I cannot handle him

Bob Mackie Disappointment Check-In:
Yep, still disappointed in Bob Mackie

no one's gloomy or complaining while the flatware's entertaining

once again, too cool to be camp

at least do some kitsch, some absurd home decor or seventies sketch comedy, some Joan Fontaine at her most tremulous

not android empress

(Believe it or not, I am skipping a lot, because it's either not interesting to me, or I don't have anything to say.)

"from Camp to Vamp!"
is, is this anything

I liked it at first, but the longer I think about it the more her hair looks like an attempt at an afro to me, and unintentional or not, that doesn't sit right with me.

honestly feels like an attempt to channel Beyoncé

my eyebrows entirely left my face, god bless Tracee Ellis Ross

not enough people are channeling Busby Berkeley, which is a shame, because look:

this is some first season TNG nonsense here and I'm all for it

a little bit mod, a little bit antimacassar

JANELLE

Janelle Monáe has out-Mackied Bob Mackie.

JANELLLLLLLE

one of like five men who's actually made an effort

Gemma Chan has become one of my red carpet faves, precisely because of stuff like this.

a green so fresh my breath is cold

oh hohohohohoho ho ho ho ho yes.

EXQUISITE but also: nnnnnnnnottttttddd cckkkkkhhhaaammpppbbb

Joan Collins! Looking absolutely fabulous.

more! headpieces!

Constance Wu is another person who is always great

it's QUILTED and it's FEATHERED and it's STUNNING

I am put in mind of Cher and what could be campier than that

When is the red carpet over? Cuz this is fun but how much more could there really be

EZRAAAAAAAAA

it's nice but it's more frolicking wood nymph than campy

LIZZO SIGHTING I REPEAT WE HAVE A LIZZO SIGHTING

also how great is that fan

there are no words, there never are, when it comes to Lupita

She's turned herself into a whip and she's carrying a riding crop. This will be a lot to process for many of us, I'm sure.

you know what? I love it.

an aside for long-time listeners: I am ashamed to say I forgot it was Met Gala day, and instead of dressing like myself or more so, I felt like it was too much of a Monday to put anything together. ergo, I am dressed like a heterosexual man

honestly Donatella didn't need to put in the effort, she's already there.

oh my god, Zendaya, oh my god, oh my goddddd

they look great, but again, this is not the cool gala, this is the other one

I guess "villain in a Disney Channel Original Movie" is camp

the Reprobate Duke in a Nineteen-Thirties Mystery look is camp

another Zendaya angle, of which we cannot have too many

when you're good to mama, mama's good to you

yES

Another Mackie look. My disappointment when the man himself increases.

An Ezra closeup, to delight and astound you

Like all right-minded folk, I love Idris Elba, but this is within the realm of normal red carpet wear for him, and I’d hoped he would push himself

I haven’t seen The Love Witch but I feel like this would fit right into it

I think I’m in the minority here but I really hated this collection. I mean, wearing this specific gown to the Met Gala is funny, but I find the collection itself clumsy, bombastic, and one-note

I think it’s winding down so let me say that despite most of it being beautiful or striking, the general lack of actual camp and/or adventurousness means a lot of participation trophies in the ceremony I’m about to have before an audience of ceramic owls

Having said that, I still don’t know that I or anyone ever really arrived at a workable definition of “camp” except that you kind of know it when you see it. Like pornography, or miracles.

Tipping me is camp
paypal.me/JPechacek

(I talk about fashion for fun but it is a tremendous amount of time and energy and like most millennials a chunk of my income can be described as The Kindness of Strangers)