On Sunday afternoon at a runway show for Cos, Steven Kolb, the chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, was involved in an altercation. As models walked the runway, a group of about five animal-rights activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) interrupted the show. They held signs that read “Sheep beaten and bloodied for wool don’t buy it,” as they protested the use of wool in fashion.
New York Fashion Week featured new collections from a range of designers this year, but the event also renewed debate over the use of animal-derived materials in fashion. Concerns about animal cruelty, particularly in the production of wool and fur, became part of the conversation during the most recent NYFW.
Kolb sat next to the incident and got up to try to stop the protest. The designer pushed a young male protester away from the runway and crumpled up the signs. Adding to that, Kolb put his hands over a man’s mouth, preventing him from screaming, and wrestled a female protester to the ground. In a later interview, Kolb took accountability for his actions and admitted to acting “inappropriately.” Kolb later resigned as president and CEO of the CFDA following the incident.
In December of 2025, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), which owns and organizes the Fashion Calendar for New York Fashion Week, announced that beginning in September 2026, they will no longer promote animal fur at any Official NYFW Scheduled events.
Although New York Fashion Week banned fur, PETA is shifting its focus to eliminating other animal-derived products. Leather, exotic skins, and wool are still being presented on the catwalk. “Anything that could have resulted from this show is nothing compared to what the sheep go through in the wool industry,” protester Mason Melito told InStyle.
In 1991, PETA launched the first of many naked protests at an Oscar de la Renta runway show. Since the campaign launched, PETA supporters and celebrities have stripped down for dozens of ads, staged hundreds of protests, and disrupted multiple runway shows..
Even though PETA has successfully helped in getting fur banned, reptiles such as crocodiles and pythons, along with many other animals, are still often subjected to extreme cruelty in the wildlife skins industry.
Other fashion weeks in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and more have also banned fur and wildlife skins from their runways.
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