In 2007, event designer Raul Ávila embarked on his very first Met Gala. Tasked with transforming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the hundreds of guests who attend the annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute, Ávila set a high standard for himself from the very beginning.
“It was my first year, and I wanted to do something completely different,” Ávila previously said in an episode of The Run-Through With Vogue. “I wanted to do something that no one’s seen before.” That year, the theme was “Poiret: King of Fashion,” in celebration of the early 20th-century designer Paul Poiret. So for the Great Hall installation—a major showpiece that guests see upon entering—Ávila built a Poiret-inspired gilded birdcage that was about 20 feet high, with two live peacocks inside. (During preparations for the night, one of them flew away, leading to a chaotic scene as people chased her to get her back in the cage.) Since then, year after year, Ávila has raised the bar with his transcendent designs.
In 2019, for “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” he created a 25-foot-tall flamingo centerpiece comprised of 30,000 flowers. In 2018, he built a recreation of a papal crown, made out of roses, for “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” In 2013, Ávila and his team flew in a chandelier from London and rigged it with aluminum “razor blades” for that year’s punk-themed bash.
In 2024, Ávila and the Vogue special events team turn the Temple of Dendur into an enchanted forest. Last year’s event—“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”—took inspiration from famed artist Cy Gavin’s narcissus flower motif, which was a nod to “self-recognition,” and sparked a floating tower of narcissus flowers as the Great Hall centerpiece.
The theme for the 2026 Met Gala is “Costume Art,” and the event will take place on Monday, May 4. (And here’s how to watch Vogue’s exclusive livestream). Until then, take a scroll through the Met Gala interiors throughout the years, from 2005’s Chanel-themed night to the most recent event in 2025.
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion
