https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lena-waithe-honors-black-drag-queens-met-gala-outfit-n1002851
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/05/232085/lena-waithe-pyer-moss-jacket-invented-met-gala-2019
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/936jay/why_are_people_writing_moodt_and_periodt_instead/
I don't really pay attention to events and stuff but I know that the Met Gala is a thing. Although I don't know what it is actually for, they always have a theme for the attendees outfits. This year the theme was "Camp: Notes on Fashion" based on Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on Camp.” My friend, who is much more "in" on pop culture and events like these, was showing me the different outfits that people wore, one being Lena Waithe. I noticed the back of her suit, reading "Black Drag Queens Inventend Camp." Curious about it, I looked up more information about her outfit/statement. I've found many articles that more or less discuss the same thing, Lena Waithe's outfit, designed by Kerby Jean-Raymond, gives black drag queens the shoutout that they deserve. As one person comments, besides RuPaul, the event lacked any black drag queens, who's creation of camp fashion has inspired the event's theme. I was unsurprised as it is a continual theme in mainstream media/pop culture to not give credit where credit is deserved, especially to POC and marginalized communities.
The second article discusses a little more about the spelling of "invented" on Lena's jacket. Many of the articles pointed this misspelling so I was confused as to whether it was purposeful or not. Lena tweeted that every thing she does is purposeful, saying "First there was “Periodt” ... and Kerby and I wanted to give y’all another one “Inventend”." The article explains this as meaning she is putting an emphasis on the D, like black people did it. I also looked up periodt/using t at the end of words and from this reddit thread, it seems like adding a t on the end of a word is a part of gay/drag culture and AAVE. This made me further appreciate Lena's statement as an acknowledgement and appreciation for the black gay/drag community. It just shows how much thought went into the outfit. The stripes are actually lyrics from black artists. Her buttons are the faces of black "camp" pioneers. The detail the designer put into this outfit is amazing and I love it.
Thank you for sharing these articles, NaNa! I also don't typically follow the Met Gala, although I've been paying closer attention in recent years as queer stars such as Lena Waithe and Janelle Monae have been in the limelight. I absolutely loved Lena Waithe's suit, and am impressed by her continued commitment to using her platform to promote art and queer poc history.
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