The show of the Swedish brand COS (part of the H&M group) as part of Fashion Week in New York was interrupted by a protest by the animal rights organization PETA, which escalated into a brawl involving the head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Stephen Kolb, writes InStyle.
Five activists ran onto the podium with placards and began chanting slogans demanding that COS and the H&M Group stop using sheep's wool. The posters read, in part: “Sheep are beaten and bloodied for their wool. Don't buy it.” Security escorted several protesters out, but some returned.
PETA Protesters Crash Live COS Runway Show at New York Fashion Week https://t.co/RluW8fx2Nj
— InStyle (@InStyle) September 14, 2026
At this point, CFDA President and CEO Stephen Kolb intervened. Videos spread on social networks show him forcibly taking away the posters, covering the mouth of one of the activists, and knocking one of the protest participants, Andria Barak, to the floor and holding him down with his feet.
The CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Steve Kolb, was filmed wrestling with and smothering the faces of PETA activists during a New York Fashion Week show, where protesters demanded an end to the use of wool on runways. pic.twitter.com/Y0bd9n0Xei
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 14, 2026
Protester Mason Melito told InStyle that he and his allies will continue to pressure the entire H&M group, including COS, until they “ban wool from their shows.” According to him, everything that could happen at this fashion show is “nothing compared to what the sheep have to endure in the wool industry.”
Representatives of the fashion community expressed dissatisfaction with the way Kolb handled the situation. Consultant Simon Whitehouse, who was CEO of JW Anderson from 2014 to 2018, posted on Instagram that he was “deeply uncomfortable and disgusted” by the videos and used the incident as a reason to call for intervention and mediation in the fashion industry, particularly around the climate crisis.
Eugene Rabkin, founder of the fashion website StyleZeitgeist and author of the book Torn: Fashion and Post-Modernism, told The Washington Post (WP) that he was shocked when he saw the footage. He noted Kolb's inability to lead organizations like the CFDA because he “exhibits such aggressive behavior” and is a “role model” for representing the entire New York fashion industry. Later, the head of the CFDA himself admitted that he reacted inappropriately.
“I reacted inappropriately to the incident at the show today. It was none of my business. I should have let security handle the situation,” Kolb said in a statement to Vogue.
In PETA's email to WP, the organization noted that “violence against activists does not show concern for people,” which means clothing companies don't care about sheep either. As the publication clarifies, the action became part of PETA’s campaign, launched in May 2026, after the publication of an investigation by the organization’s Asian division. It alleged that at a South African wool factory linked to H&M's supply chain, workers kicked and dragged sheep by the legs, leaving open wounds on the animals.
At the same time, the CFDA published a statement back in December 2025, according to which it officially decided to ban the use of natural fur on the catwalk, starting with this year’s New York Fashion Week.
“It is prohibited to use fur from animals raised or captured specifically for their pelts, including mink, fox, rabbit, astrakhan fur, chinchilla, coyote and raccoon dog. The only exception is animal fur obtained by indigenous peoples as part of traditional hunting for their own consumption,” the publication said.
