Camp, in a sense, is an extremely difficult subject to tackle. The term ‘camp’ has various interpretations, and to this day, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on what it actually is.
In terms of fashion, camp means something that is completely over the top and wouldn’t go completely unnoticed. It could also have a flair of humor, but not necessarily mainstream. It can be completely out of the ordinary or joyous.
Embracing camp as a philosophy can be achieved too. Style, in the long run, will leave you with structure, content, and a world full of meaning. If one focuses on the mundane, it will take the fun out of everything. Camp has its purpose and can be used anytime one wants to.
The camp aesthetic has become more popular over the years. Today, the word camp gets different kinds of reactions; both good and bad. The Costume Institute Gala was inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay called Notes on Camp. The author makes several points detailing the ways in which the concept of camp can be seen. The essay can be condensed into one sentence: “Indeed the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration . . . style at the expense of content . . .” He also added that the theme is timely, and “very relevant to the cultural conversation to look at what is often dismissed as empty frivolity but can be actually a very sophisticated and powerful political tool”.
