New Delhi: While “Costume Art” couture and A-listers dominated the spotlight at the Met Gala 2026, Indian craftsmanship made a quieter, yet powerful statement.
For the fourth year in a row, the fashion extravaganza’s red carpet was crafted by Neytt by Extraweave, a Kerala-based label from Cherthala that continues to showcase traditional weaving techniques on one of fashion’s largest stages. They designed the carpet in collaboration with event visionary Raul Avila, and the creative minds of Baz Luhrmann and Derek McLane.
The eye-catching carpet, on which the celebrities walked and were photographed, featured a garden-inspired design made from natural fibre, blending sustainability with high-fashion aesthetics. And, it carried the tag, “Made in India”.
“It signifies India’s cultural arrival. We are extremely proud to be part of it,” founder Sivan Santosh told ThePrint over telephone.
“For us, it’s more a moment of recognition, for our artisans, our craft, and the work coming out of India. If anything, it’s a reminder to keep building and hopefully motivates more brands and fashion entrepreneurs to push Indian design onto the global stage,” Santosh added.
The 36-year-old said that the memo given to him and his team was to just create a base carpet for New York-based artists to paint on. But the execution was far from simple.
Santosh explained that around “400 to 500 artisans worked on the carpet for over 90 days.” The team reportedly produced “57 rolls, each measuring 4 x 30 metres,” and covering a total of “6,840 square metres”, which were then shipped to New York.
Though they don’t get much freedom when it comes to designs, Santosh said that the objective has always been to up the quality by a notch every year.
“That’s why they collaborate with us. The quality we deliver is top-class. This year, the highlight of the carpet was that it was made from hand-sorted natural sisal fibre, which is the whitest of the white fibres. And specially sourced from Madagascar,” said Santosh, who has also supplied carpets to the White House since 2010.
“Even a tiny blemish could be visible on a carpet such as this, so we make sure everything is perfect,” he added.
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Who is Sivan Santosh?
Santosh’s understanding of carpets and rugs runs in his blood. He is a fourth-generation businessman who is carrying forward a legacy that began 109 years ago with his great-grandfather, the founder of Extraweave Private Limited. The parent company has built a formidable reputation in the business-to-business space, known for its scale, export strength, and consistent quality.
Santosh, however, noticed a market gap, where “rugs were not associated with South India.”
“Our craft, our designs were not known to the world,” Santosh said. That is when he decided to take matters into his own hands.
While Santosh remains the Director and COO of the parent company, he started Neytt with his wife, Nimisha Srinivas, in 2021. The idea was to create a brand that showcases their roots and art. Neytt is more artisanal, design-driven, and rooted in storytelling from South India.
“At Neytt, we have the luxury to experiment with materials, textures, and narratives, and also engage directly with customers through our Delhi flagship store. It’s a more expressive, craft-forward extension of what we do and that approach has also earned us a few international design awards,” he said.
The first time the label manufactured the carpet for the fashion fundraiser, the duo did not know it was for the Met Gala.
“Only once the samples were approved, which took a lot of back and forth, we were told who it was for, and we were ecstatic. But because we come from a small town, no one really understood the scale of the Met Gala. When it came out in the media, then everyone realised that it was something very big,” he recalled.
Santosh calls it a big day for the brand, but there are no grand celebrations planned. They are keeping their heads down and soaking it all in.
This year, the carpet was designed to resemble a stone garden pathway. “A tan design with patches of moss green, all creating the feeling that it has ‘been there for a long time’,” Ávila told Vogue Arabia.
The Met Gala, held every year on the first Monday of May, is organised by Vogue at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This year’s theme was “Fashion is Art”, with co-chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and former Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos were honorary chairs.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)