Kerala-made carpet stands out in New York’s Met Gala 2023

It was not just Indian celebrities Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Isha Ambani and Natasha Poonawala who made the country proud at the recently concluded Met Gala – one of the most talked about fashion events.

The show held at New York’s 153-year-old Metropolitan Museum of Art also had a long white carpet which was the centre of attraction for the participants and audience and it was made by Kerala’s Alappuzha artisans.

Created by Cherthala-based design house Neytt of Extra Weave, they have supplied the carpet for Gala for the second time in a row. Besides this family-business which is 106 years old has been providing carpets to White House, Buckingham Palace and to celebrities and stars around the world

Sharing details about the work, Sivan Santhosh, founder of Neytt  and Extra Weave’s director said at every Gala event the red carpet has a specific theme. This year was to honour the late designer Karl Lagerfeld from Germany and that is why it was white coloured. Moving away from the usual, the serpentine lines with ‘S’ shapes were inspired by an English painter, added Santhosh.

The colour scheme was red, white and blue keeping in with the theme.

Providing details about his family business, he said it was started by K. Velayudhan, his grandfather with The Travancore Mats and Matting Co. Extra Weave was started by his father Santhosh in 2000 while he founded Neytt two years ago.

The order for Met Gala work was received by Neytt from Fibre Works and for this year, it was made with sisila fibre which is obtained from Agave cactus bark that is imported from Madagascar, Brazil and Tanzania.

A total of 58 rolls were manufactured for the event with each of them being 30 metres long and 4 metres wide and it was 7,000 square metres. A total of 70 days was taken to make it. The hand painting of the carpet was done in the US.

Met Gala had decided recently to move from wool carpet to natural fibre-based ones. The red-coloured carpet made last year, again by Neytt, was made using fibre.

Talking to the Print, Santhosh said: “The Met Gala moved from traditional materials to a natural fibre product, highlighting the need for globally sustainable practices. Being sustainable always matters and it’s one of our core values. As a company, we do our bit.”