The organizers of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute admit they are a little worried that the title of their upcoming exhibition, “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” might cause confusion.
“Camp” could suggest a study of apparel for the great outdoors, a la L.L. Bean or REI. But in this case, what the organizers mean by “camp” is what essayist Susan Sontag in 1964 described as a particular sort of artifice, exaggeration, and curiousness in fashion and design that functions as “a private code, a badge of identity even.”
Curator Andrew Bolton, who was inspired by the Sontag essay, explains that the sense of camp emerged in the 19th century as a secret code among gay men.