At the 2025 Met Gala, the red carpet wasn’t red at all but rather midnight blue dotted with white-and-yellow blooms.
The carpet’s motif—a narcissus flower, more commonly known as a daffodil—came from artist Cy Gavin. In an interview with Vogue, Gavin says he became fascinated with the spring perennial growing outside his upstate New York studio. To many, the bloom symbolizes the arrival of the new season—and since the Costume Institute fundraiser takes place on the first Monday of May, he felt a synergy existed between the two.
Then there was the flower’s scientific name, which stems from the Greek myth of Narcissus. Though Gavin admits there are many interpretations of the tragedy, he honed in on one facet: when Narcissus sees his reflection for the first time in the pool of water. “I became interested in that moment of self-recognition and appreciation,” he says. Such a sentiment struck him as powerful amid this season’s exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, which examines Black dandyism and identity. “It’s very easy to not see yourself clearly because of all the selves that other people tell us we are—and I was struck by the poignancy of that being also a sort of punishment,” he adds.
He took all of this and channeled it into a painting, “Untitled (Sky),” where the narcissus flowers are made to resemble stars in a night sky. (The painting will be projected in the Temple of Dendur during the gala.) Meanwhile, set designer Derek McLane and event planner Raúl Àvila took Gavin’s motif and translated it into the sprawling carpet that covered the stairs of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And although it will be removed after the Met Gala is over, its meaning lives on in the thousands of photos taken by photographers as stars from Pharrell Williams to Savannah James made their way up to fashion’s biggest night.
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