No one can say that Katy Perry doesn’t put in the effort. When you walk the Met Gala carpet as a chandelier, that’s effort. Anna Wintour certainly appreciates that, year after year, Katy brings her brand of spectacle to the event. And never has a Met Gala theme suited her more. When she first arrived, Maria texted me to say that “Katy never fails in that she’s always a fail”. That was true… until she changed.
Katy showed up as a chandelier. And then she turned herself into a burger – or, you might say, a nothingburger:
I’m tempted to just give it to her now, just give her the best dressed Met Gala title for 2019 because… well… this is f-cking Camp, it’s wonderfully, beautifully Camp. You know why? Because that word became part of pop culture when Heather Havrilesky called Katy a “nothingburger” in The Cut in 2015, remember? I never knew Katy Perry had a long game to play. That’s Beyoncé’s domain and, if we’re being generous, Taylor Swift, I guess.
Katy, though, Katy was saving it all this time. For exactly the right time. For a night of Camp and pettiness, which is exactly what these kinds of grudges should be – toothless, harmless, impermanent. And isn’t it also fitting? Katy Perry’s style is basically mascot foam. Everything she wears looks like it could be made into a professional sports team’s mascot. This is not a gift on most days of the year, or most years, really. But this happens to be the one year it works.
In other silver headpieces…
What a moment for Gemma Chan in Tom Ford. Tom, as we know, is particular about who he chooses to dress. He doesn’t ever come with a party bus full of muses like, say, Jeremy Scott or Zac Posen. Tom’s strategy is to be elite among the elite. This year at the Met Gala, he pointed his wand at Gemma Chan. I can’t imagine that was a difficult decision. Look at her. And this is a LOOK.
But is it Camp?
F-ck yeah, it’s Camp. The inspiration is ALL Camp.
Boom is a Camp classic. In his piece on Camp yesterday, Prem referred to John Waters as the “king of Camp”. John’s better known by his other nickname, the “Pope of Trash”. And the Pope of Trash’s favourite movie? Boom. Boom was Glitter before Glitter, Showgirls before Showgirls. Boom is the godmother of The Room. It’s terrible and delicious, it’s shockingly, wonderfully, beautifully bad. I LOVE this tribute – a gorgeous headpiece on its own made even better when you learn its origin.
Jennifer Lopez also did Camp in silver, with a headpiece. Not a memorable look for her, by her standards. She did the most she could with it, the way she vamped her way up the stairs, working every angle of that body, so toned, so sculpted, but… I wonder if she would have made the same choice had she known that Gigi Hadid was coming in with the atomic force of a comet, HOLY SH-T.
I don’t know if Gigi will ever top this Met Gala appearance. It is probably her best ever showing any time anywhere. Every decision here is flawless, from the perfect fit of the hood to her eyes and the lashes, to this f-cking jacket, the length of it, the arm holes, the lapels, all of it like one skin, at once human and reptilian, organic and foreign, earthly and alien – for a long time the title was hers, almost, until someone else showed up at the 11th hour. But my GOD was this a moment. And if you want even more Camp, her Vogue video is, so far, at the time of this post, the best one yet, for how delightfully low-key goofy she is despite the fact that she’s basically a Marvel super-being come to life – how else could she move so nimbly in this goddamn outfit?