Camp in Context: How the Aesthetic’s History Informs its Meaning

When “Camp: Notes on Fashion” was announced as the the theme for the 2019 MET Gala, questions arose among onlookers about what they were to make of horse heads protruding out of evening gowns and Jared Leto carrying his head as an accessory. 

The likely place to turn for an explanation was Susan Sontag’s celebrated essay, “Notes on Camp,” which unpacks the aesthetic and inspired the Met’s exhibit. Like the essay that propelled both Sontag and camp into mainstream discussion in the 1960s, the Met Gala brought camp back to the forefront of the public's mind, along with questions of what it really means.

“To snare a sensibility into words, especially one alive and powerful, one must be nimble,” Sontag wrote. And she was, offering her understanding of camp in a series of notes, perhaps the most appropriate way to explain so elusive an idea. Here are some key takeaways from Sontag’s essay about what “camp” is:

Camp emphasizes style and aesthetic above content and meaning. In this way, it celebrates artifice, extravagance and exaggeration.

Camp embodies “epicene,” the idea of something or someone having characteristics of both sexes, or of neither of them. It allows for not only androgyny but the convertibility between one sex and another. 

Camp is life as theater. It is not a thing or person as we usually see and understand them, rather a performance of them, a stylization. As Sontag puts it, “camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a ‘lamp’; not a woman, but a ‘woman.’” 

Amidst these sharp observations about camp, Sontag makes an interesting claim that camp, in the way it highlights style and aesthetics, is “disengaged,” “depoliticized.” But a look at camp’s history, particularly in the queer community, reveals that camp and the groups that most widely employ its aesthetic are inherently political.   

Camp aesthetics are noted as appearing in eighteenth-century Europe, in the over-the-top, extravagant tastes of elites, according to Ula Klein and Emily Kugler’s article “Eighteenth-Century Camp Introduction.” However, camp has more recently become associated with the queer community. The word “camp” comes from Polari, a slang used in queer communities in Britain in the 1800s as a way for people to avoid being identified as queer when it was criminalized. Etymologists estimate that “camp” was either derived from the French verb, se camper, which means "to portray or pose," or the Italian word campare, meaning "to make something stand out.” 

But it wasn't until the 19th century that camp became increasingly visible through the increasing notoriety and  popularity of drag balls, particularly during the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. Defined by drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys as “the theatrical exaggeration of gender,” drag is camp by all definitions. Because what is the theatrical exaggeration of gender if not an embodiment of “epicene” or the portrayal of a “woman” rather than a woman?

Drag subsequently exemplifies serves as an example of the political implications of stylized expressions of gender nonconformity that are so embedded in the camp aesthetic. Drag has historically been a form of expression for queer people, one that represents “a long tradition of resistance and challenge to the dominant order,” according to an article by Carmen Harris detailing the evolution of drag in the U.S. She adds that as drag became more visible in the mainstream, it “explicitly defied gender and societal norms and brought a distinct queer subculture to light.”

Camp has also been used in the fashion industry to bring depth to seemingly over-the-top and strange designs. Particularly in haute couture collections, many designers take the creative freedom to present the wealthy clients and attendees of fashion shows with designs that appear, for lack of a better word, ridiculous —  they use grossly exaggerated proportions, excessive amounts of fabric, kitsch and humor. Some designers whose work is celebrated for this are Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and Viktor and Rolf. 

One of the designers most celebrated for his use of camp is Jeremy Scott, particularly when he was creative director of Moschino. “The King of Kitsch” was known for using irony in his collections that often made commentary on the world of high fashion. 

You can see this in his 2014 fall ready-to-wear collection, which featured skirt suits and quilted purses that played on the house codes of Chanel, only they were in yellow and red and decorated with “M'' logos reminiscent of McDonald’s’. The irony Scott employs is clear, drawing attention to the wealth disparity between a McDonald’s employee and a Chanel or Moschino client. 

“Camp involves a new, more complex relation to ‘the serious.’ One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious,” Sontag wrote. Camp has been used in both the past and present to stylize messages of substance, showing just how true these words still ring.