EXCLUSIVE: Stella McCartney, David Attenborough to Be Honored by New Environmental Start-up The Nat

Yahoo

7 hours ago

SYDNEY — Meet the 'Nat Gala': a brand-new New York benefit slated for September that hopes to garner the buzz and fundraising power of May's Met Gala — this time with an environmental focus.
To be unveiled in London on Wednesday during London Climate Action Week, the event is the offshoot of a new environmental coalition of cross-industry partners called The Nat which is led by London-based Gail Gallie, a former marketing executive who cofounded Project Everyone with British screenwriter and film producer Richard Curtis in 2015, the campaign unit that launched the Global Goals on behalf of the United Nations.
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The NAT aims to bring together a community of leading voices across business, science, society, philanthropy and culture to amplify awareness and accelerate action for nature. The inaugural Nat Gala, its flagship fundraiser, will take place in New York on Sept. 21 on the eve of the 80th Session of the U.N. General Assembly. Gallie hopes the event, which is due to be staged at the Classic Car Club on Pier 76, will raise $20 million to go toward critical nature restoration projects that will be facilitated by partners including Conservation International. Three hundred guests are anticipated.
'The SDGs [U.N. Sustainable Development Goals] have got 15 years to run,' said Gallie. 'It was thinking, me personally, 'What can I add to the trajectory that we are on?' My personal passion has so much drawn me into nature and I feel like that's the new news that the world wants as well, because we've been hearing climate change, climate change, climate change for so long… I could see how I could drive more change by really diving deep into nature. And that's where The Nat has come from.'
The work of David Attenborough and, in the fashion space, Stella McCartney, will be honored at the gala, which is also assembling a cadre of ambassadors — or 'NATure Stewards' — who include environmental activists Harrison Ford, Wanjira Mathai, Xiye Bastida, Titouan Bernicot, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and Sabrina Elba, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
As for the red carpet, 'We're calling it a 'natural' carpet' said Gallie. 'The directive is, 'Seriously, think about your choice. Is it borrowed? Is it vintage? Is it from a designer who is working at the cutting edge of sustainable practices?''
Gallie harnessed the collective clout of a well-connected creative team for the project. The Nat and Nat Gala's co-creative directors are Rachel Muscat — the Los Angeles-based Australian cofounder and former chief executive officer of Pharrell Williams' Humanrace brand — and Al MacCuish, the London-based cofounder and chief creative officer of Sunshine, a creative entertainment production company. Joerg Koch, the founder and editor in chief of Berlin-based magazine 032c, has been tapped as Nat Gala artistic director; Art + Commerce cofounder and managing director Jimmy Moffat as art and culture adviser, and veteran music executive Gary Gersh as music adviser. Other creative collaborators include American musician Madame Gandhi and Open Planet, the global environmental footage specialist.
'I think what's been so inspiring for us working with Gail is that it is this untapped connection between culture and nature that we really see bringing the two worlds together,' said Muscat, who launched the Rachel Muscat Studios consultancy after leaving Humanrace in late 2024 and is now working with brands and celebrities in several markets. '[Take] Joerg Koch from 032c, like it's quite unexpected that he would be somebody who would come in. And that's our ambition: how do we continue to bring unexpected voices to nature? Because everyone actually is connected to nature in a certain way, but maybe they just don't know how to become closer or be a part of it.'
The Nat Gala isn't Gallie's first fashion hookup. In 2021 she launched a Project Everyone social media campaign called Fashion Avengers, teaming up with brands including Burberry and Pangaia to advocate for, and drive action toward, the U.N.'s Global Goals.
'I knew the industry a little bit and I knew that it had big problems in terms of the natural world and sustainability, but I also knew that it was trying, and there was a real appetite there to change. But then the pandemic happened,' said Gallie.
'The Nat Gala is not a fashion event per se, it's a nature event,' she added. 'But the creativity and the ability to drive change that fashion has is undeniable. I think that's what I was scratching at with the Fashion Avengers. And now it just feels like maybe this is the right time.'
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