Every year, occasion coordinator Raul Ávila is offered a challenging job: to change the Metropolitan Museum of Art into a transcendent phenomenon for the yearly Met Gala. For 2019’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” he developed a 25-foot high, flamboyant flamingo focal point consisted of 30,000 flowers. In 2018, he put up a rose entertainment of a papal crown for “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” And those are simply examples of flower developments: In 2007, for “Poiret: King of Fashion,” he filled a gilded birdcage with live peacocks. Small turmoil taken place when one left. “Everyone at the museum was chasing her to get her back into the cage,” he remembered.
Each occasion brings an experience: in 2013, Avila and his group flew in a chandelier from London and rigged it with razor blades for that year’s punk-themed celebration, and “Heavenly Bodies” saw the Met’s grand staircase alight with countless candle lights. There are the table settings: 2019, for example, saw tablescapes with bamboo dinnerware, plume lampshades, flower plates, and stunning pink table linens.
2023’s soirée, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” honored the Chanel imaginative director with its design. The Temple of Dendur boasted a set that looked like Lagerfeld’s home library, while the tablescapes took visual hints for the popular wedding party he tossed for Paloma Picasso.
This year’s occasion–“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”– and its sure-to-be fantastical decoration will occur on May 6. Till then, take a spin through the Met Gala interiors throughout the years, from 2005’s Chanel-themed soiree to the most current affair in 2023.
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Photographed by Flo Ngala
Karl Lagerfeld was understood for his love of tossing supper celebrations. For the 2023 Met Gala, the Style unique occasions department and occasion coordinator Raul Àvila were motivated by many popular soirées: the wedding party he hosted for Paloma Picasso.
In America: An Anthology of Fashion and A Lexicon of Fashion
For 2022’s “In America: An Anthology of Fashion”, visitors from Blake Lively to Lizzo had supper on plates decorated with classic concepts sourced by Johnson Hartig of Libertine. Beautifying the tables were linens based off of embroidery by American fabric artist Elizabeth Jeffries, discovered by Style‘s contributing editor Eaddy Kiernan in the Metropolitan Museum’s archive.
Camp: Notes on Fashion
Photographed by Corey Tenold
“Camp is everything about exaggeration,” Raul Ávila stated of his decoration for the 2019 Met Gala. Here, a flamingo focal point in the museum’s Great Hall with a base consisted of 30,000 flowers.
Celestial Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
Photographed by Corey Tenold
For the 2018 Met Gala, Ávila developed a papal crown focal point with 80,000 roses. Why recreate the headpiece? “The tiara is the most striking part of the Pope’s ensemble,” he stated.
Rei Kawakuno/ Comme des Garçons: Art of The In-Between
Photographed by Corey Tenold
For “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between,” a giant,