When the 450 invited guests enter the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the 2024 Met Gala, they will all be greeted by the same spectacular centerpiece in the Great Hall: a ceiling-height tree made of wood and fabric, whose roots touch the ground and branches almost reach the ceiling. Surrounding it are silkscreen panels of greenery and woodlands.
“We wanted to create this romantic landscape and environment that felt like you’re coming into a magical enchanted forest,” says Eaddy Kiernan, Vogue’s contributing editor who helps plan the Met Gala each year.
The concept stemmed from this year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” Wendy Yu Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton visually connected 250 culturally significant garments from different eras through the common thread of nature. There’s a room dedicated to pieces inspired by poppies, for example, whereas another features those taking their cues from snakes or seashells.
With this in mind, acclaimed set designer Derek McLane dreamt up a moody, mythical arbor aesthetic inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite era. “They rejected the more classical studied art and really wanted to take an approach that was very sincere and true to nature,” says Kiernan of the 19th-century British art movement.
It was the job of event planner Raúl Àvila to execute it all. He tells Vogue it took six months to create the “beautiful and mysterious” tree centerpiece, from the initial idea to its final execution. “We put it together first in a warehouse to make sure we weren’t missing anything,” he says. “We needed to make sure we weren’t going to run into any major problems at the event, where it would be too late to fix anything.”
A week before the Met Gala, they disassembled the pieces and transported them to the city. On Sunday night and into Monday morning, they began to rebuild the centerpiece on-site in the Metropolitan Museum’s Great Hall. “It really feels like an illusion—that you are in a forest somewhere,” Àvila says.
And from 5:30 p.m., Zendaya, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez, and more will be making their way through these high-fashion woods to host the 2024 Met Gala. Follow along with the Met Gala live stream, starting at 6 p.m. EST / 3 p.m. PST.
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