10 Of Fashion's Best Camp Catwalk Moments

What you quickly realise when trying to put together a list of some of the campest moments in fashion’s runway history is that the curators at the Costume Institute have had a tricky task this year. Camp is one of the pillars on which fashion – and particularly fashion shows – was founded. Hence, definition is key. In her 1964 essay, Notes on Camp, Susan Sontag lists no less than 58 characterisations, which can largely be summed up as the celebration of high-octane appropriation, artifice, outlandishness, theatricality and extravagance. “Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It's not a lamp, but a ‘lamp’; not a woman, but a ‘woman’,” Sontag writes.

Met Gala 2019: Everything You Need To Know

Met Gala 2019: Everything You Need To Know
MET GALA 4 days ago
You can consider that a disclaimer for the following ten contenders, which merely offer an idea of camp’s influence on fashion through the ages. Notably missing, for instance, is legendary costumier Bob Mackie, whose camp creations for Cher and Elton John were commissions rather than runway proposals. Then there’s the fact that the campest moments outside of fashion history nearly always unfolded on a stage, from Marlene Dietrich dramatically dropping her white fur during her last performance in London, in 1955, to Madonna imitating that moment at the Academy Awards in 1991, or Ziggy Stardust, Liza Minelli, Liberace, Lady Gaga and every other flamboyant lady and gentleman.