The 2019 Met Gala theme, and subsequent exhibit, "Notes on Camp," was inspired by Susan Sontag's essay of the same name written in 1964. In her essay, Sontag describes "Camp" as a love for the unnatural, where artifice, exaggeration, and things-being-what-they-are-not are celebrated. It defies the idea of systematization. The theme often associated with gay culture provided the framework for surreal fashion and playful pieces, both on the Red Carpet and inside the Met, showcasing how fashion expresses irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration. The exhibit had 175 pieces of fashion and 75 sculptures, paintings, and drawings, some dating back to the 1600s, and 100 examples from the 1960s, which showed how Camp has become more mainstream through examples in the collections of Balenciaga, Prada, Vetements, and Gucci.