Rising camp: how an arch sensibility got political
There are few more mercurial cultural concepts than camp – or more enduring ones. America’s current king of TV camp, Ryan Murphy, is winning new accolades with his arch, neon-lit true-crime drama The Assassination of Gianni Versace. The Winter Olympics’ breakout star, ice skater Adam Rippon, set gay Twitter aflame by arriving at the Oscars wearing a Jeremy Scott tux and leather harness. Jonathan van Ness, long-haired, plaid-skirted grooming expert of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, has ensured that viewers of the Netflix show now “spray, delay and walk away” when applying cologne.
So far, so fabulous. But also so familiar: camp is, after all, a perennial feature of style for white gay men. Yet camp can also be radical. At Paris fashion week this month, Japanese label presented an alternative vision. On displaywere ruffles, clashing polka-dot and tartan patterns, voluminous panto-dame petticoats and endless puckering layers.
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days