{"id":42475,"date":"2019-05-06T23:40:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T03:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=42475"},"modified":"2019-05-06T23:40:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T03:40:55","slug":"my-best-dressed-at-the-2019-met-gala-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/my-best-dressed-at-the-2019-met-gala-is\/","title":{"rendered":"My Best Dressed at the 2019 Met Gala Is &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had an eagle eye on the attendees of tonight&#8217;s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"tenor-gif-embed\" data-postid=\"5145428\" data-share-method=\"host\" data-width=\"100%\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1.3259668508287292\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/view\/todeolho-deolho-observando-observo-gif-5145428\">S\u00f3 Observando GIF<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/search\/robertdeniro-gifs\">Robertdeniro GIFs<\/a><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async src=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/met-gala-2019-preview-from-bitter-party-of-one\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">As I wrote earlier<\/a>, I wasn&#8217;t convinced that the celebrity guests were going to live up to the theme of the exhibition the Met Gala is promoting, which is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/exhibitions\/listings\/2019\/camp-notes-on-fashion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-slimstat=\"5\">Camp: Notes on Fashion<\/a>.&#8221; I&#8217;ve been pleasantly surprised &#8212; almost spoiled for choice regarding my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/category\/celebrities\/best-dressed-wear-what-you-want-award\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Best Dressed\/Wear What You Want award winner<\/a> &#8212; considering camp can be a difficult concept to pin down, as writer\/activist Susan Sontag acknowledged in her famous 1964 essay, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.georgetown.edu\/irvinem\/theory\/Sontag-NotesOnCamp-1964.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Notes on Camp<\/a>.&#8221; She wrote, &#8220;To talk about Camp is therefore to betray it,&#8221; yet here we are with an entire museum exhibit that centers her essay. On the other hand, Sontag wrote, &#8220;Camp taste has an affinity for certain arts rather than others. Clothes, furniture, all the elements of visual d\u00e9cor, for instance, make up a large part of Camp,&#8221; later adding, &#8220;Camp is a woman walking around in a dress made of three million feathers.&#8221; And if you&#8217;re looking for a dress made of three million feathers, the Met Gala is a good place to find one no matter what the year&#8217;s Gala theme is.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few other statements from Sontag that I kept in mind while selecting my Best Dressed\/Wear What You Want winner:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The hallmark of Camp is the spirit of extravagance.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Camp is the glorification of &#8216;character.'&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Style is everything.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Camp proposes a comic vision of the world.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It is the love of the exaggerated, the &#8216;off,&#8217; of things-being-what-they-are-not.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It&#8217;s not a lamp, but a &#8216;lamp&#8217;; not a woman, but a &#8216;woman.&#8217; To perceive Camp in objects and persons is to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role. It is the farthest extension, in sensibility, of the metaphor of life as theater.&#8221;<\/ul>\n<p>Sontag also quoted Oscar Wilde, who wrote: &#8220;One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The winner of my 2019 Met Gala Best Dressed\/Wear What You Want combo award nods to all of the above statements; appeals to my own predilection for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?s=trompe+l%27oeil\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trompe l&#8217;oiel<\/a> and the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/the-floofiest-of-the-floof\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">over-the-top<\/a>&#8220;; and references Surrealism, which often reads camp to me despite Sontag&#8217;s dismissal of &#8220;the sleek fantasies of Dali&#8221; as being on the &#8220;barren edge of camp.&#8221; My honoree is constantly on my best-dressed lists because &#8212; let&#8217;s face it &#8212; what other people call &#8220;camp&#8221; is my everyday taste and I don&#8217;t need a museum gala to adore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teenvogue.com\/story\/janelle-monae-googly-eyes-updo\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">someone who has been known to wear googly eyes in her hair<\/a>. Congratulations to my winner, musician\/actor Janelle Monae, as well as her designer, Christian Siriano!<\/p>\n<p><center><a id='BW474SX4RN1U5WauOh6_jQ' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1141848222' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'BW474SX4RN1U5WauOh6_jQ',sig:'QJY0tSbpkRyPtnIDhdmvcOGWyzm5ax6gv_IU3WTtLnw=',w:'334px',h:'594px',items:'1141848222',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/scene\/news\/janelle-monae-met-gala-alexandra-mandelkorn-stylist-1203206818\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Picasso-meets-Dali face dress<\/a> and its accessories are perfection. The eye that forms half a bra top with feathered lashes! The clutch purse turned into a second eye! HER HAT IS WEARING OTHER HATS!<\/p>\n<p><center><a id='zP4nC1PoToRta5tBCXbFMA' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1147443266' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'zP4nC1PoToRta5tBCXbFMA',sig:'4wxmA7x6--F6v8HnJDyqEQGdenJF50crgIgZsRV8wxY=',w:'395px',h:'594px',items:'1147443266',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Here are two more sentences from Sontag&#8217;s &#8220;Notes on Camp&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Camp is art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken altogether seriously because it is &#8216;too much.'&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;&#8230; Camp involves a new, more complex relation to &#8216;the serious.&#8217; One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think those are relevant to Monae&#8217;s artistic work, not just her special-occasion fashion sensibilities. Last year, she came out as pansexual and put out an album called <em>Dirty Computer<\/em>, of which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/janelle-monae-frees-herself-629204\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rolling Stone said<\/a>, &#8220;The lyrics are flesh-and-blood confessions of both physical and emotional insecurity, punctuated with sexual liberation&#8221; as opposed to the extraterrestrial persona she had maintained since her first studio album, appropriately called <em><a href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/14271-the-archandroid\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The ArchAndroid<\/a><\/em>, came out in 2010. A big step in her personal evolution, and how did she express it visually? Check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/news\/pride\/8452054\/janelle-monae-vagina-pants-pynk-video-for-sale\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">vagina pants<\/a> she wore in her &#8220;PYNK&#8221; video.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PaYvlVR_BEc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>By the way, those pants are even more spectacular in person. I&#8217;ve seen Janelle live a couple of times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/what-wendy-wore-back-in-business-with-bloggers\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">since 2010<\/a>, most recently at Coachella last month, and &#8220;PYNK&#8221; on stage was MAJOR. I didn&#8217;t get a photo of the vagina pants, though. I was too in the moment!<\/p>\n<p><center><div id=\"attachment_42479\" style=\"width: 508px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42479\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/janelleresizetext-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"491\" class=\"size-full wp-image-42479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/janelleresizetext-1.jpg 498w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/janelleresizetext-1-300x296.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-42479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coachella 2019. Alas, I didn&#8217;t get a vagina pants photo.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Truly, Janelle is a stellar singer\/musician\/dancer and if you have the chance to go to one of her shows, do not hesitate! Tell her I sent you. I mean that figuratively, by the way, because she doesn&#8217;t know who the fuck I am! Hey, maybe you can introduce us?<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"tenor-gif-embed\" data-postid=\"5094560\" data-share-method=\"host\" data-width=\"100%\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1.7543859649122806\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/view\/elmo-shrug-gif-5094560\">Elmo Shrug GIF<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/search\/elmo-gifs\">Elmo GIFs<\/a><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async src=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re relatively new around here, come back tomorrow for my runners-up in the Met Gala outfit sweepstakes. If you&#8217;ve been reading my blog since 2007, I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve already guessed them. Just go ahead and list them in the comments, <a href=\"http:\/\/sheilaephemera.blogspot.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sheila from Ephemera<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had an eagle eye on the attendees of tonight&#8217;s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. S\u00f3 Observando GIF from Robertdeniro GIFs As I wrote earlier, I wasn&#8217;t convinced that the celebrity guests were going to live up to the theme of the exhibition the Met Gala is promoting, which is \u201cCamp:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/my-best-dressed-at-the-2019-met-gala-is\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[645,10,1,650,440],"tags":[2003,1695,1069,1694],"class_list":{"0":"post-42475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-best-dressed-wear-what-you-want-award","8":"category-celebrities","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"category-met-gala-2","11":"category-museums","12":"tag-camp","13":"tag-camp-notes-on-fashion","14":"tag-janelle-monae","15":"tag-susan-sontag","16":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42475"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42484,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42475\/revisions\/42484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}