The flamingo-pink carpet was awash with feathers, tulle, sequins, gold lamé, and plastic baubles—perfectly fitting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s high-glamour annual Costume Institute gala, this year dedicated to the theme of camp fashion.
Hosted by Harry Styles, Serena Williams, Lady Gaga, Alessandro Michele, and Anna Wintour—when else do you get a boy band veteran, a grand-slam tennis champion, a pop superstar, Gucci’s creative director, and Vogue’s grand dame in the same room?—the evening was a visual feast for the ages.
The celebrity guests were sent a copy of Susan Sontag’s landmark essay “Notes on Camp,” which was the basis for the Costume Institute’s exhibition, ahead of time. It’s unclear how many actually read the text—which loosely defines “camp” as “a love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration”—but, boy, did they deliver.
Below, we’ve rounded some of our top art-inspired looks at the 2019 Met Gala.
Billy Porter
Billy Porter arrives for the 2019 Met Gala. Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images.
Broadway star Billy Porter, arriving on a golden throne carried by a group of shirtless men, made the biggest entrance of the evening. And his costume of an Egyptian sun god was well suited for a party at the home of the ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur.
Hamish Bowles
Left, Hamish Bowles at the Met Gala. Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images. Right, Katherine Bernhardt, Pink panther + scotch tape + green plantains (2018). Courtesy of the artist and CANADA.
Longtime Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles’s cape calls to mind the riotous colors of artist Katherine Bernhardt.
Ezra Miller
The Instagram account @tabloidarthistory noted that the mask held by Fantastic Beasts actor Ezra Miller was reminiscent of artist Gillian Wearing’s 2012 photograph (which in turn channeled French artist Claude Cahun), Me as Cahun Holding a Mask of My Face.
Diane Von Furstenberg
Diane von Furstenberg by Andy Warhol; von Furstenberg at the Met Gala; the Statue of Liberty at sunrise, courtesy of Getty Images.
The fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, a onetime muse to Andy Warhol, dressed up as a statue no less iconic than the Statue of Liberty.
Janelle Monae
Left, Janelle Monae at Met Gala, photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images. Right, Man Ray’s Object to be Destroyed (1923), courtesy of Google Arts & Culture.
The singer-songwriter Janelle Monae kept time with photographer Man Ray’s metronome from his 1923 photograph Object to Be Destroyed.
Tracee Ellis Ross
Tracee Ellis Ross arrives for the 2019 Met Gala. Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images. Right: Lorraine O’Grady’s “Art Is…” performance, 1983.
Actress Tracee Ellis Ross’s gold picture frame seemed to reference Lorraine O’Grady’s 1983 performance Art Is…, in which the artist and critic framed the faces of black and Latino people at that year’s African American Day parade.
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o at the Met. Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images. Right, Detail of Shoplifter’s installation of synthetic hair, courtesy of the artist.
Did actress Lupita Nyong’o “steal” her costume inspiration from the furry installations of Icelandic artist Shoplifter?
Jared Leto
Jared Leto arrives for the 2019 Met Gala. Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images. Right: Caravaggio’s David With the Head of Goliath, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Actor Jared Leto took a cue from the gruesome beheadings of art history, such as Caravaggio’s David With the Head of Goliath.
Cara Delevingne
Cara Delevingne arrives for the 2019 Met Gala celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images)
Model Cara Delevingne’s fruit-festooned fascinator, which reportedly took 600 hours to make, calls to mind the “Brazilian Bombshell” Carmen Miranda’s elaborately artistic hats.
Cardi B
Left, Cardi B. at the Met, photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic. Right, Anish Kapoor’s Past, Present, Future (2006), courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.
People have been known to get trapped inside Anish Kapoor’s art in the past. Is Cardi B the latest victim?
Katy Perry
Left, Katy Perry at the Met, photo by Kevin Tachman/MG19/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue. Right, Claes Oldenburg, Two Cheeseburgers, with Everything (Dual Hamburgers) (1962), courtesy of MoMA.
Katy Perry pulls off a “well-done” hamburger in the style of sculptor Claes Oldenburg.
Harry Styles
Harry Styles arrives for the 2019 Met Gala, photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images. Right, detail of Jean Decourt’s Portrait of Henry III of France, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
British singer Harry Styles donned a pearl earring, perhaps as a reference to Vermeer—or Jean Decourt, who also painted his portrait of King Henry III of France with a pearl earring.
The Kardashians
Kendall Jenner (L) and Kylie Jenner, photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images. Right, Paola Pivi’s bears at Perrotin gallery.
Kendall and Kylie Jenner looked like two of the “beary” feathered friends from artist Paola Pivi, whose neon sculptures recently took over Perrotin gallery in New York.