Lena Waithe wants everyone to know who invented camp.
The actor and screenwriter arrived at Monday night’s Met Gala wearing a lavender pinstripe suit emblazoned with the words, “Black drag queens invented camp” across the back.
This year’s gala theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” which inspired Waithe to send a message with her outfit, designed by Kerby Jean-Raymond, she told E! News.
“To me, I really wanted to make sure my outfit represented the black drag queens who started this camp thing about being over the top and all that jazz,” Waithe said. “People like RuPaul, all these pioneers who really started this whole thing and I really wanted to pay tribute to them.”
Most intriguingly, the pinstripes donning her Pyer Moss suit ― Jean-Raymond’s label ― were actually song lyrics from “I’m Coming Out,” “You Make Me Feel,” “We Are Family,” “Supermodel,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” “I Will Survive” and “Take Me or Leave Me.”
Waithe also told E! that the accessories she wore honored rappers like the late Nipsey Hussle.
“The buttons are pictures of those people and the lyrics like ‘I’m coming out, Sylvester, you make me feel,’” Waithe said. “I want to pay tribute to them and the culture.”
While powerful, the jacket spells “invented” like “inventend.” It’s unclear if the misspelling was intentional.
The 34-year-old is no stranger to prompting conversation with her outfits. At the 2018 Met Gala, she wore a massive rainbow cape reminiscent of the Pride flag in an effort to respond to the theme “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” as the Catholic Church is known for its disapproval of homosexuality.
Many on social media lauded Waithe for her outfit: