Setting Up Camp

The subversive idea of ‘camp’ is being celebrated as never before, including as the theme for this year’s Met Gala. Victoria Moss explores fashion’s most flamboyant form of self-expression

- Victoria Moss

The idea of ‘androgynous dressing’ is old (fedora) hat by now. Over the past few years, we’ve become accustomed to gender-neutral brands and pieces that look equally good on either sex. But the conversation around dressing and gender has moved forward. Or backwards, depending on which way you look at it. Erdem’s standout SS19 show during LFW was inspired by two men, the notorious ‘Fanny and Stella’, who lived as women in Victorian London, finally being arrested (and then acquitted) on indecency charges.

The theme of this year’s Met Gala and exhibition – always a barometer of where the collective fashion head is at – is ‘camp’, a celebration of queer style and its influence on clothes and culture. Rising LFW star Matty Bovan’s joyful show, an ode to DIY dressing and clubland, featured trans model Finn Buchanan in a draped emerald and orange dress, with a bikini top slung round the waist as a belt. The Maison Margiela show saw shaved-headed macho boys dressed in skirts and heeled boots, and brands including Marni report increasing numbers of men buying womenswear. Not to mention Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, who has been banging the cross-dressing drum since he took over as creative director at the house, sending male models down the catwalk wearing more jewellery and glitzier dresses than the women. It doesn’t hurt that Michele’s best chum Jared Leto has been enthusiastically embracing his feminine side in flamboyant head-to-toe Gucci for every photo opportunity.