Manish Arora featured in new MET Museum NYC exhibition

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 9, 2019

Designer Manish Arora has been featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibition named “Camp: Notes on Fashion” in New York, the US. The designer also dressed Keiynan Lonsdale for the MET Gala opening.

“Camp is freedom of expression of any kind,” wrote Arora on his social media about the event. “Being yourself, extravagant, exaggerated, out of the box - that is camp; so is my work, my style and camp is here to stay. So proud and happy to share this. My iconic circus dress which was worn by Katy Perry is a part of the metropolitan museum nyc for their exhibit Camp: Notes on Fashion [sic].”

Arora’s featured dress is a rainbow of bright hues with a bodice top and 3D skirt that resembles a carousel. Individual sequinned circus performers including humans and animals sit behind candy-striped bars and the top of the skirt is decorated with flags.

As well as having a dress featured in the exhibition, Arora dressed celebrity Keiynan Lonsdale in a dress made from 1,500 hand embroidered butterflies. Lonsdale wore the multicoloured dress for the Met Gala, the event to celebrate the opening of the exhibition on May 8. Bollywood celebrities Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone also attended the event. 

The Met exhibition explores the idea and aesthetics of camp as interpreted by designers across history. Other featured designers include Vivienne Westwood, Viktor & Rolf, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. The exhibition was inspired in part by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp'.”