We can now say with confidence that cardboard-box recycling billionaire Anthony Pratt at the Met Gala was easily this weekend’s most successful Green.
Not because of any affiliation with the troubled environmental political party, but because the chair of Visy and Pratt Industries served an arresting, green-themed look at the Met Gala fundraiser that we describe as clashing in confidence.
Amazon sustainablity executive Kara Hurst, Visy deputy chair Fiona Geminder and Anthony Pratt.Credit: Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
CBD loves a clashing print (heck, any sort of clash is good copy). So we were pleased to see Pratt’s suit teamed with the green theme and heroes the “Pratt 100% Recycled” decals that were such a feature of last year’s Met Gala Willy Wonka pink suit.
Pratt repeated the mix of lime, green and lemon decals on a bright green shirt and tie, in contrasting styles so bold they risked triggering our photopsias.
Pratt offset his two-piece suit with a dark-green hat and cane. But he swapped out last year’s Balenciaga runners for more sensible Brooks sneakers, potentially sourced from the House of Rupert Murdoch.
Pratt offset his two-piece suit with a dark-green hat and caneCredit: Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Throwing together the fashion fundraiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – world’s silliest “look at me” event – with a billionaire’s concept of fashion invokes CBD trepidation. Clearly, the event’s theme of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” was a tricky and ultimately impossible brief for the chair of Visy and Pratt Industries, who went solidly for 50 Shades of Green despite his personal colour palette not screaming “spring”.
Pratt, who now has a US green card and has an honorary title of Kentucky Colonel, was accompanied by his sister and Visy deputy chair Fiona Geminder. The family wealth is put at $25 billion.
The pair’s last big social function mentioned in dispatches was a lavish Visy party in March for the packaging industry and clients in a massive marquee at the Pratt family mansion of Raheen in Melbourne’s Kew. Air Supply and DJ Mark Ronson performed, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew all the way from Sydney just to give a short speech. Peter Dutton was an apology.
Also spotted in their orbit, Amazon sustainability executive Kara Hurst, clearing a key client of all those recycled boxes. All Met Gala attendees must be personally invited by US Vogue editor- in-chief Anna Wintour – and that’s before they need to shell out the required $US75,000 ($113,000) per ticket.
Anthony Pratt at the 2024 Met Gala in New York.Credit: Getty Images
Pratt was days before front and centre of US President Donald Trump’s economic initiative after promising to invest billions in the US, which earned him a personal shout-out at the White House, as this masthead reported:
“Executive global chairman of Pratt Industries, friend of mine, Anthony Pratt – he’s investing $US5 billion ($7.82 billion), thank you,” Trump said as Pratt stood in his blue suit, flashed his hand up in thanks, and sat down again.
It is a far cry from two years earlier when Trump labelled him a “red-headed weirdo”.
Now Pratt is feted by both Trump and Wintour. Is anyone more central in US power culture right now?