While the world’s eyes were fixed on the avant-garde silhouettes and ‘Costume Art’ couture of Met Gala 2026, a quiet revolution in sustainability and craftsmanship was unfolding right beneath the feet of the A-list. For the fourth year, the carpet of fashion’s biggest night was laid by Neytt by Extraweave, a design house based in Cherthala, Kerala. Also see | 7 Indians who stunned at the Met Gala 2026 carpet: Karan Johar to Isha Ambani to a literal Indian princess
The 2026 carpet — a sprawling, garden-inspired masterpiece — wasn’t just a floor covering; it was a feat of Indian engineering and artisanal skill and reportedly spanned over 6,800 square metres.
The anatomy of the garden path at Met Gala 2026
As per a May 4 The Nod report, designed in collaboration with event visionary Raul Avila, and the creative minds of Baz Luhrmann and Derek McLane, the 2026 carpet served as the literal ‘ground’ for the event’s romantic, dreamlike atmosphere — it was made from hand-sorted natural sisal fibre sourced from Madagascar.
It reportedly featured a refined boucle construction that balances high-fashion aesthetics with the durability needed to withstand hundreds of stars, including the Kardashians, Beyonce, Rihanna, and Isha Ambani. The base was a soft, off-white, meticulously painted to mimic a weathered stone pathway, complete with realistic patches of mossy green.
By the numbers: a massive operation
Getting the carpet from the backwaters of Alleppey to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was no small task. Per The Nod, ‘around 400 to 500 artisans worked on the carpet over 90 days, moving through different stages of production to get it just right’. The team reportedly produced 57 rolls, each measuring 4 x 30 metres, covering a total of 6,840 square metres, which were then shipped to New York for Met Gala 2026.
A legacy of excellence
This isn’t Neytt’s first time on the global stage. The brand has become a staple of the Costume Institute’s annual Met Gala, consistently proving that traditional Indian weaving techniques have a place at the pinnacle of modern design.
In 2022, the brand created a bold red-and-blue striped carpet for In America: An Anthology of Fashion. The 2023 carpet was a collaboration with Japanese architect Tadao Ando for the Karl Lagerfeld tribute. In 2025, they created a deep blue natural-fibre base featuring hand-painted narcissus flowers.
“From the very beginning, everyone knew it was for the Met Gala,” founder Sivan Santosh told The Nod about the 2026 carpet. “People are very excited… they want to make it better every year. The rug is what elevates whatever else is in the space,” he added.
As the brand expands its footprint with a new flagship store in New Delhi’s Sultanpur, its continued presence at Met Gala serves as a powerful reminder: the next time you see a celebrity glammed up on the Met steps, the soul of that moment might just be ‘made in India’.
