Less than a week after a physical altercation with animal welfare activists in the middle of a runway show, Steven Kolb, the CEO of the Council Of Fashion Designers Of America (CFDA), the fashion industry’s leading trade organisation, has resigned.
“After 20 years leading the CFDA, I have made the difficult decision to step down,” Kolb said in a statement Friday (Sept 18) evening. Kolb had been placed on leave Monday by the organisation, pending a full review into his actions.
The organisation did not name an immediate successor.
A statement attributed to the CFDA’s board, which includes leading US designers such as Thom Browne, Tory Burch, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, said: “We respect Steven’s decision to step down and are grateful for his many years of leadership and service to the CFDA and our industry.”
The incident, which took place Sunday (Sept 12) at the runway show for COS, a contemporary fashion brand owned by H&M, shocked many in the fashion world and was viewed far and wide in a video posted to Instagram by website Fashionista.
Kolb, 64, is shown shoving and placing his hand over the mouth of a young male protester, later identified as Mason Melito, who described himself as a senior campaigner with People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, or Peta.
Read more: New York Fashion Week runway drama puts sustainability and ethics debate on show
The video then shows Kolb pulling a female protester to the ground, using one leg to restrain her as he covers her mouth.
The video has now been viewed more than 500,000 times on Instagram, and a majority of the top comments criticised Kolb’s behaviour and called for action to be taken against him.
The broader sentiment in the fashion community was that Kolb’s actions had gone too far.
Last Monday (Sept 14), Diane Von Furstenberg, the CFDA’s former chair, spoke highly of Kolb, calling him the “sweetest person in the world, vegetarian and anti-fur”, but added that “of course, he was wrong”.
The altercation, which occurred just past the midpoint of New York Fashion Week, swiftly became the talk of the front rows at subsequent runway shows.
On Sept 14, he issued a statement of apology through his own Instagram account.
“What happened was completely out of character for me, both personally and as a leader,” Kolb wrote. “Frankly, I don’t recognise that person.”
He said he was “meeting with a professional” to ensure it would not happen again.
In the statement, Kolb also said that he had accepted Peta’s offer to “meet and discuss their concerns”.
On Friday (Sept 18), Moira Colley, a Peta spokesperson, confirmed that Kolb had rescheduled, but that both parties remained interested in meeting.
In the remaining days of fashion week, Kolb, who is a reliable presence at nearly any fashion event in New York City, was conspicuously absent from the shows.
The CFDA provides support for US designers and fashion brands, linking them with manufacturers and other industry contacts.
It also strives to keep New York Fashion Week relevant on the global stage, an increasingly challenging task as the fashion capitals of Paris and Milan have soaked up more attention.
Some outside the industry expressed confusion as to why Kolb reacted so vociferously at a fashion show for a label that is not based in the US, but in Europe.
According to an email from August touting the CFDA’s work for the industry, though, COS was one of several brands that had provided financial support for the CFDA’s New York Fashion Week Fund, established in 2022 to help bring over members of the international press and buyers.
This year, the group included journalists from Harper’s Bazaar Italia and Vogue Korea, as well as buyers from the French department store Le Bon Marche.
Read more: All eyes on New York Fashion Week as its first full fur ban takes effect
For their part, Peta protesters have become a reliable fixture of fashion weeks and have crashed the runways of brands like Hermes, Burberry and Gucci in the past.
In New York, the fashion label Coach has been a favoured target for Peta, spurring the brand to beef up security during recent shows.
On the day it happened, the protesters at the COS show shouted and held placards decrying the company’s use of sheep’s wool.
Into the week, as the roving fashion community moved on to its next destination, Peta continued to target H&M.
On Thursday (Sept 17) in London, protesters stormed the H&M runway show carrying signs that read “H&M: Wool is bloody cruel, drop it.”
Those protesters were eventually escorted out by security without further incident. – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
