If your day has been centred around the Met gala red blue carpet and judging which celebrity got the theme right from the comforts of your couch, you’ll not mind us harping a little longer on the carpet itself. The blue-and-gold carpet, which somehow seemed to fit the dandy theme perfectly, came from a place far from the flashing bulbs and celebrity selfies: Cherthala, a serene town in Alleppey district of Kerala.
This is not the first time Neytt by Extraweave, a homegrown label with an eye on the runway and its heart firmly rooted in handloom, made its appearance at the Met. In 2022, Neytt designed a red-and-blue striped carpet for the In America: An Anthology of Fashion theme, and then in 2023, a swirly red-and-blue number painted atop an off-white sisal weave, made in collaboration with Japanese architect Tadao Ando for the Karl Lagerfeld tribute. Over the years, it has been something like a silent star on fashion’s biggest night.
“The first year, our workers didn’t quite realise the scale of what we were doing. But now, with all the media attention, they’re so proud. Their craft has gone global, and they’re overjoyed,” shares founder Sivan Santosh over a phone call.
Not that the learning curve wasn’t steep. “The first year was definitely a challenge,” he says. “We had to get the weave just right—tight enough that no one trips, especially not in heels! Each year, we’ve levelled up in quality and construction.” Today, Santosh has been dodging media calls all morning, reiterating why Neytt’s superpower lies not in the rug’s fibre and finesse but its soul. “We wanted to build a brand focused on sustainability and storytelling,” he shares.
For the 2025 Met Gala, Neytt collaborated with the event’s design team to supply a blank canvas (quite literally) for this year’s red-carpet area. The handwoven natural fibre base was then transformed by artist Cy Gavin, who painted it midnight blue and dotted it with white-and-yellow narcissus flowers. The finished carpet, inspired by a field of daffodils, captured themes of self-recognition and identity, perfectly echoing the Costume Institute exhibit Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. A showpiece that was part artwork, part walkway and 100 per cent Met Gala magic.
Behind the scenes? Sheer precision. The carpet was woven from 6,840 square metres of natural sisal fibre sourced from Madagascar and transformed over 90 days by around 500 artisans in Alleppey. That’s 57 individual rolls, each 4x30 metres, obsessively checked for flaws. “Even a small impurity in the fibre shows up as a streak once it’s laid out,” shares Santosh, whose grandfather began making coir doormats in 1917. “There’s zero margin for error.”
Known for its rich history in coir production, Alleppey, the coir capital of India, has always turned humble fibres into global exports. But for Santosh, this was never just about carpets; it was about changing perceptions. He launched Neytt in 2021 with a clear mission—to spotlight design sensibilities from the South that were often overlooked, even within India. “Rugs were always being associated with north India,” he says. “I wanted to shift that narrative.” From Cherthala’s quiet looms to the Met’s glittering entrance, Neytt has proven that luxury doesn’t have to shout. It can be handwoven, heartfelt, and steeped in heritage.
