Inside the Met Gala: A Look Back at a Decade of Stunning Met Gala Interiors

Every year, event planner Raul Ávila is given a daunting task: to transform the Metropolitan Museum of Art into an otherworldly spectacle for the annual Met gala. For 2019’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion”, he created a 25-foot tall, flamboyant flamingo centerpiece comprised of 30,000 flowers. In 2018, he erected a rose recreation of a papal crown for “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”. And those are just examples of floral formations: in 2007, for “Poiret: King of Fashion,” he filled a gilded birdcage with live peacocks. Minor chaos ensued when one escaped. “Everyone at the museum was chasing after her to get her back into the cage,” he recalled.

Each event brings an adventure: in 2013, Avila and his team flew in a chandelier from London and rigged it with razor blades for that year’s punk-themed bash, and “Heavenly Bodies” saw the Met’s grand staircase alit with thousands of candles. Then there are the table settings: 2019, for example, saw tablescapes with bamboo flatware, feather lampshades, floral plates, and shocking pink tablecloths.

2020’s soirée, “About Time: Fashion and Duration”—and its sure-to-be-fantastical decor—has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So instead, take a spin through the Met gala interiors throughout the years, from 2005’s Chanel-themed soiree to the most recent affair in 2019.