Versace on the Floor Trivia Quiz

Answer: Susan Sontag

In general, Sontag often wrote of themes of conflict, including the Vietnam War or of terrorism or communism, sometimes controversially. She has also argued that photography has become so ubiquitous that it replaces human experience - people come to remember the photograph rather than the event itself - and desensitises people to horrific events. What would she have made of this event, I wonder?

'Notes on "Camp"' is certainly an interesting read and you can find it online easily if you wish, but I have to admit the vagaries of campness somewhat eluded me. Some of the more interesting snippets Sontag noted: camp is an aesthetic phenomenon in terms of artifice rather than beauty; all camp things have a large amount of said artifice especially if they can also have the sensibility of naivete; and that it is the farthest extension of the metaphor of life as theater.

According to Vogue's website, Andrew Bolton - curator of the Costume Institute who help run the event - felt that the concept of camp as style at the expense of content described by Sontag felt perfectly resonant with the cultural and political zeitgeist. Camp had been noted as becoming more and more mainstream, in spite of being historically trivialised, and its combination of high art and pop culture was apt for such an event. To sum it up - it was high time camp had its moment in the spotlight.

Answer: Lady Gaga

"Born This Way" singer Lady Gaga noted that many of the outfits were a throwback to the sorts of fashion she would have worn a decade ago, even holding a brick phone reminiscent of that in "Telephone" when wearing her slim-fit pink dress. She considered that to be very camp indeed. Her friend and designer, Brandon Maxwell, was close in hand and featured in many of the shots at the event with her.

According to her Twitter, "Camp is a part of who we are. It is not something that we have to try to be.".

Answer: A burger

According to her creative director Jeremy Scott, the burger outfit was a spontaneous attempt to come up with something that matched the burger shoes already in her brand. With a giant straw on her head she donned the burger outfit, which extended from her neck to just above her knees and included two buns, a beef patty, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and pickles. Unlike the meat suit Lady Gaga once wore in 2010, this outfit wasn't fit to eat.

Of course, she sung Sia's "Chandelier" whilst literally wearing one. It's not often you get to see that sort of thing unironically - or who knows when it comes to camp?
Also, the chandelier was no joke to construct. Jeremy Scott also noted that the outfit took six weeks to construct using thousands of Swarovski crystals and real chandelier parts, and that 'every ball has a chandelier'.

Answer: Celine Dion

To the glee of many, Celine originally expressed some degree of consternation with the camp theme, wondering if she had actually been commissioned to wear outdoors gear. Fortunately, she was set straight - if she had even been serious in the first place - and even if the reception to her dress might have been mixed on social media, she personally told Vogue that she wanted to go to bed in it.

And, hey, with over 3,000 hours put into this Oscar de la Renta outfit by 52 master embroiders, I'd probably want to get all the use I could out of it too.

Oh, and the Eurovision? That was "Ne partez pas sans moi" all the way back in 1988, and since Eurovision is a famed high camp venue, I thought it was an apposite hint.

Answer: Ezra Miller

Mimi Choi, his makeup designer for this event, has been well-known for her visual illusions, and thought that the idea of multiple eyes revealing different personalities and alter-egos reflected the camp theme very well. He wore a Burberry suit and a jewelled corset with this unusual look whilst holding a mask of his face. Of course, Jared Leto also had the idea to carry a replica of his face with him, so hopefully there weren't too many conflicts backstage over the similar mask concept - Ezra Miller surely would have won the staredown.

Answer: The inside of a theater

Jordan Roth in 2019 was the owner of Jujamcyn Theatres where he oversaw five Broadway theatres and according to Twitter described the outfit as "a wearable sculpture that expresses so much of what I feel about theatre, about fashion and about myself". If one interprets camp as embodying theatre, well, he nailed it. According to reporter Michael Paulson, the outfit drew inspiration from the Royal Swedish Opera (curtains and proscenium on the cape's exterior), Palais Garnier in Paris (theater interior) and the Met Opera (back).

As we've seen, quite a few people took a literal approach on the camp theme. Katy Perry was literally a chandelier, Jordan Roth was literally a theatre and Tracee Ellis Ross literally a 'work of art' as she carried a picture frame to 'reclaim the narrative of black camp' according to her Instagram profile. It's probably for the best that Celine Dion didn't literally come dressed as a tent...

Answer: A cheap and plain black jacket and trousers

Kanye, along with Frank Ocean and other men who blandly wore simple tuxedos or who made such slight nods to the theme that they might as well not have bothered, didn't exactly dress for the occasion. Of course, some have argued that some of these men may have been dressing ironically - and thus potentially camply - but I'm a fan of Occam's Razor in these sorts of situations: the simplest plausible answer is the correct one.

On the plus side, Kanye's sub-$50 jacket constitutes one of the only outfits I could actually afford, so there's something. And, according to Kim herself at the event, he really wanted her to shine instead - after all, she'd gone to the trouble of taking breathing lessons to manage wearing her tight corset for the event.

Answer: Billy Porter

Porter is known for winning the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical when he played Lola in 'Kinky Boots', a drag queen who appropriately helped save a financially ailing shoe factory by supporting the development of a line of (probably rather camp) high heel boots. In helping Charlie Price save the inherited factory he never really wanted, both of them came to terms with how they deviated from their fathers' expectations for them and who they really were.

The outfit really rivaled Gaga on the extravagancy stakes - he was clad top to bottom in gold with massive fly-like wings and a 24-carat-gold crown. According to Vogue, he was glad that camp - often used as a pejorative - was chosen to be honoured at this event.

Answer: Yes

Donatella Versace indeed partook in the Gala as well, wearing an ornate multi-coloured see-through top section with a green lower sectioned dress with 'Divine' written on one side and 'More' on the other coupled with green-tinged hair. This outfit was met with a somewhat negative response on social media, but, hey, at least she was playing to the camp theme. According to a GQ interview, after taking over the company from her brother Gianni who was assassinated in 1997, her approach to fashion has been to incorporate glamour into streetwear and to listen to her young audience to remain relevant.

In 2018, she was actually one of the event's guest hosts and sponsors alongside Amal Clooney and Rihanna, where the theme was the controversial "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" featuring real Papal vestments and accessories. Neither Amal nor Rihanna attended the 2019 Gala.

Answer: Anna Wintour

In fact, up to this point Anna Wintour had been the main host overseeing the guest list and benefits committee since 1995 with only a couple of exceptions. Since the early '90s, the event has been considered a jewel in New York's social crown and has been a huge source of funding for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, earning over $13 million in 2018.

Her much-appreciated dress had partly been made by the late Karl Lagerfeld, whose passing Wintour had reportedly been shocked to hear of, leading to her bawling in public. She therefore wore it as a tribute.

Also, extravagant really doesn't say quite enough by itself. Reportedly, tickets for the general public cost $30,000, according to businessinsider.com who also noted that Jennifer Lopez wore a necklace worth over $200,000. One journalist even likened the event to the 'fashion Oscars'.