The Met Gala is fashion’s biggest night — and best-kept secret.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City holds its annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute exhibit on the first Monday in May, inviting an elite list of guests to ascend the famed staircase for an elaborate dinner. Still, details about what goes on inside the benefit are unknown given its infamous no-phone policy.
Each Met Gala follows a certain theme, which event designer Raúl Ávila and his team work tirelessly to bring to life inside the museum.
“I have around 300 people working with me, and the hardest thing today is finding people who genuinely like this kind of job,” Ávila exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the Monday, May 4, gala. “Some people think that by working at the Met Gala they’ll be invited, but it doesn’t work like that. I have the honor of being invited because I’ve been doing this for many years and because Anna [Wintour] is fond of me.”
While Ávila decorates the Met space, the biggest fashion houses design over-the-top garments for the attendees that fit the theme in various interpretations. Ávila confirmed to Us thatWintour, the longtime organizer of the event, approves every outfit.
“They don’t come to her because they think that she’s going to say something bad. She’s just going to guide the person to the best of her knowledge. She’s Anna Wintour,” Ávila said. “She was the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine for over 30 years. She is the bible of fashion. She is the woman who has brought this today. So, yes, it’s respectful to hear what she has to say about what you’re going to wear.”
According to Ávila, Wintour, 76, is “happy” to weigh in and guide each Met attendee to “look their best” on the red carpet.
Ávila has also gotten sneak peeks at some of the custom looks.
“There’s a lot of sketching that most of the designers send to the office, and I’ve seen those sketches, and they’re going to say, ‘So-and-so is going to wear this dress, and this is the sketch, this is the color. What do you think?’ It goes from there,” he told Us. “I’ve seen a lot of these sketches, and they have the mood board with colored fabrics and shoes and jewelry and accessories. Not just the outfit; shoes and accessories [are] a big part of the whole package.”
While there is a long list of Met attendees, any no-shows respectfully turn down the invitation with plenty of notice.
“If they cannot make it, they will say immediately, ‘I’m so sorry, but this year I won’t be able to go,’” Ávila explained. “Everybody [else invited] shows up.”
According to Ávila, Wintour “carefully curates” the guest list each year.
“She also reviews many of the outfits people plan to wear and will tell them whether it works or not. She is someone who is very straightforward with everyone, and people trust her word,” Ávila said. “I think that, with this theme, Anna probably has a lot of influence over how she herself dresses and what people will be wearing that night.”
Monday’s Met Gala will follow the “Costume Art” theme with a dress code of “Fashion Is Art.”
“It’s truly about studying the form of the human body in a very artistic way, and how to place clothing on the different parts of the human body,” Ávila explained of the theme. “We’re all completely different — some are thin, some are fuller, some are tall, some are short. It’s ‘Costume Is Art’ [sic] because they study the figure and shape of each human being, and from there they begin to design their pieces. It’s a very interesting theme.”
Ávila works on each Met Gala design for a full year, ensuring that every detail is a “spectacular” representation of the theme.
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“This year, [Anna] told me, ‘I want you to focus on the gardens of northern Italy,’” he teased to Us. “I went to Italy, I went everywhere. I started drawing ideas from what I saw. I love walking when I visit another country. I started pulling ideas from everything I saw — the parks, the fountains, the buildings, the people, everything. … And from everything, I take a little bit and turn it into ideas. I transform them into something that has to be striking to look at. I also want people, when they see my work, to have an experience.”
On Monday, guests will enter the Met through the iconic steps and venture inside the museum for dinner. Once inside, Ávila’s work and the Costume Institute exhibit are unveiled.
“Those guests who arrive in outfits they can barely move in, or with things on their heads, or enormous trains? They change in the Great Hall,” Ávila added of the stars’ elaborate red carpet looks. “They check in, and they put on something more manageable to attend the dinner.”
