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The Met Gala, an annual benefit event for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is considered one of the world’s biggest events on the fashion calendar.
It is known for its exclusive guest list, its expensive tickets and – most of all – its extravagant outfits, based on a different theme each year.
This year, that theme was Camp: Notes on Fashion – to coincide with an upcoming exhibition at the Met, inspired by photographer Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay, Notes on Camp.
The outfits this year will therefore, like the exhibition, be based on “irony, humour, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality and exaggeration”.
And showing everyone how it was done at the very start of the night was singer Lady Gaga, who arrived in a billowing pink outfit which was not quite what it seemed at first glance.
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Lady Gaga arrived in a billowing pink outfit…
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Which opened up to reveal a black gown, her second outfit…
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Designer Brandon Maxwell then undid this dress to reveal…
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Lady Gaga’s third outfit, a slim-fitting pink gown
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…Which she then took off, to reveal her final outfit
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Serena Williams arrived in a neon yellow gown – with matching Nike trainers
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Harry Styles wore a sheer black top and high-waisted trousers
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Singer Billy Porter arrived with an entourage…
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…Before flexing his wings in front of the crowds
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Laverne Cox went for a sleek black dress and bold make up
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Regina Hall rocks a gold dress with pastel pink hair
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Jordan Roth has turned himself into an opera house
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While actor Yara Shahidi has gone all out with the feathers
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