Tonight is the Met Gala. It’s worth repeating, as we do every year, that the Met Gala is not an ordinary red carpet. The basics never seem to understand this which is why they think Blake Lively is Best Dressed year after year even though, year after year, she shows up in a ball gown – which is not the point. As Avril Mair, group fashion director for ELLE and Harper’s Bazaar said last week, “[The Met Gala] is the only red carpet where directional fashion has a place, as opposed to other red carpets, which are about finding something flattering”. 

That’s why tonight is going to give us such great gossip. Because the theme is Camp, and when the theme is Camp, “finding something flattering” is not the f-cking point. That, however, is not the typical celebrity sensibility. As Page Six reported this weekend, many of them are stressing about their outfits:

“I know some A-listers who regularly attend were unhappy with the looks designers were pitching them,” said one fashion insider. “The idea of ‘camp’ is out of their grasp. One major hairstylist to an A-list actress told me, ‘She’s freaking out because she just wants to look pretty.’ ”

Well, that’s the first and biggest problem – as Prem wrote in his post earlier today about Camp, Camp is so much more than “just wanting to look pretty”. But that’s definitely what’s going to happen tonight and that’s what will make this Met Gala especially intriguing. Like in 2017, when the theme was Rei Kawakubo/Comme Des Garcons and in 2013 when the theme was punk. Which brings us to Gwyneth Paltrow.

Here’s Gwyneth with Brad Falchuk in New York last night. She is expected at the Met Gala tonight. You’ll recall, back in 2013, the punk year, G showed up in un-punk pink:

gwyneth-one-06may19.jpg

That was the year she bitched about it being too hot and crowded and declared that she would never go again. She did go again, in 2017, and again wore pink, completely ignoring the tribute to Kawakubo and Comme Des Garcons:

gwyneth-two-06may19.jpg

As I wrote at the time, it would seem that whenever the Met Gala is about counterculture, Gwyneth Paltrow upholds the status quo. Will she be in pink again tonight? Pink can certainly be campy. But will SHE be on theme? Or will she do what she always does – and pay homage to herself, again