PETA activists to file police report after physical altercation with CFDA's CEO Steven Kolb

CFDA chief executive Steven Kolb got into a physical altercation with activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Sunday’s H&M Cos show during New York Fashion Week. In videos now all over social media, Kolb is seen pushing a male protester towards a window, then covering his mouth, and later wrestling a female protester to the floor and covering her mouth. According to PETA, both activists are filing a police report and plan to pursue criminal charges.

After the incident, Kolb said on his Instagram stories that he “reacted inappropriately.” “It wasn’t my place to do so. I should have let the security team handle the situation,” he wrote.

PETA said the activists were protesting the commercial partnership between H&M Group and a farm certified by NATIVA, whose workers were allegedly caught on camera “kicking and stomping on terrified sheep and leaving them with gaping wounds after crude shearing,” the organization said.

“Today’s actions show how top people in fashion use violence to silence people who expose how sheep are beaten, bloodied, and violently killed for scarves and sweaters,” PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement on Sunday. “PETA is calling on H&M and COS to ban wool from its collections and is urging everyone to shop elsewhere until they do.”

This was NYFW’s first season in which animal fur was banned in collections. “There is already little to no fur shown at NYFW, but by taking this position, the CFDA hopes to inspire American designers to think more deeply about the fashion industry’s impact on animals. Consumers are moving away from products associated with animal cruelty, and we want to position American fashion as a leader on those fronts, while also driving material innovation,” Kolb said in December 2025, when the ban was announced.