H&M executives have agreed to sit down with PETA after a runway protest turned physical at New York Fashion Week.
The meeting was secured Monday, a day after COS managing director Daniel Hermann, whose upscale label sits under the Swedish retail giant, helped restrain an animal-rights demonstrator inside the WSA Building in Manhattan’s Financial District. Steven Kolb, 60, chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, yanked the protester off the runway and pinned her between his legs while covering her mouth to silence her shouts about wool-industry cruelty.
Hermann, whose label was presenting its autumn/winter collection, grabbed the protester’s arm as Kolb pulled her to the floor, according to video footage. Models continued walking the runway throughout the chaotic scene.
“We acknowledge the concerns PETA continues to raise regarding wool and animal welfare and welcome the opportunity to discuss this directly,” H&M said in a statement Monday. The company added that it “has had an ongoing dialogue with PETA over many years, and remain open to continuing that conversation.”
PETA spokesperson Moira Colley said filing charges with law enforcement over the Sunday incident remains under consideration. “But the main goal for us is to meet with Kolb and H&M to show them our investigations into the cruel wool industry and we are looking forward to doing just that,” she added.
Kolb, who apologized and announced a voluntary leave of absence from the CFDA on Monday, said in a statement he is “deeply sorry.” He accepted PETA’s invitation “to discuss their concerns,” adding that he hoped to “apologize in person to the two individuals who did not deserve that treatment.”
Colley said PETA’s protesters “always drop to the ground, never throw punches so to be met with force like that was shocking to us.”
Jacqui Sadashige, PETA’s manager of corporate responsibility, wrote in the letter to Hermann that “COS claims that its collections are created with a mindful approach, a message that is difficult to reconcile with the images and video that emerged from the event,” She continued, “As peaceful protestors attempted to draw attention to the suffering of sheep in the wool industry, the response was to physically suppress the criticism rather than address the cruelty that prompted it.”
The letter requested a meeting with Hermann specifically. COS responded with a statement that “the incident at the show should have been prevented from escalating and that is why we are reviewing what happened with the teams involved. We are deeply sorry for what our guests, participants, and viewers of the show experienced.”
PETA declined to reveal how it infiltrated the invitation-only show. “We had six people at the show,” Colley said. “We have contacts in all corners of the fashion world, insiders who are upset about this cruelty too.”
The group’s undercover investigations of the wool industry have included infiltrating 150 farms across four continents, where it documented “workers punching, kicking, beating, and stomping on sheep, dragging them by their limbs, and leaving them with bloody shearing wounds,” according to the letter sent to Hermann. One 2024 investigation targeted a New Zealand sheep farm owned by former “Today Show” anchor Matt Lauer. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said at the time that “Matt Lauer’s New Zealand getaway is hell for scared sheep who are flung about, pinned down and cut up.” A spokesperson for Lauer said he had “absolutely no knowledge of any alleged problems at his property” until contacted for comment.
H&M maintains its wool is ethically sourced. “The wool we source for our brands, is either certified by Textile Exchange’s Responsible Wool Standard or comes from certified recycled sources,” the company stated. “H&M Group has been in close contact with Textile Exchange and shares concerns about PETA’s allegations.”
PETA is known for confrontational tactics including storming shareholder meetings and protesting outside Canada Goose stores with graphic images of bloodied coyotes used for parka trim.
