Steven Kolb, the chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the fashion world’s largest trade organization, was involved in an altercation Sunday afternoon at the fashion presentation for Cos, a contemporary fashion brand owned by H&M, the Swedish retailer.
The incident took place in the WSA building at 175 Water Street in Manhattan. As music blared and models paraded around, a group of animal-rights activists stormed the proceedings and began screaming to get sheep off the runway.
Kolb was seated before a wall of windows when an activist emerged in front of him. Video taken at the event by the news site Fashionista showed Kolb rising from his seat and pushing a young male protester toward the wall, away from the runway. In Kolb’s hand is a placard one of the protesters was holding, with a message about animal cruelty.
Later in the video, Kolb can be seen with his hand over the man’s mouth and pressing his face against the window, seemingly to prevent him from screaming.
From there, a group of security guards arrives to cart the man out. Kolb can then be seen wrestling a female protester to the ground, where he holds her in place, with one leg wrapped around her and his hand covering her mouth, as he sits in his seat, watching the show.
Seconds later, she breaks out from under him and walks out onto the runway, holding her hands up as she screams to get “sheep” off the runway.
The reaction from Kolb, who has worked at the CFDA for two decades, stunned industry onlookers and celebrities in attendance. Among the A-listers in the crowd were Sharon Stone and Lupita Nyong’o.
Fashion shows are frequently interrupted by animal-rights activists, but few among the editors and buyers in attendance have seen a major industry figure physically intervene. “I was shocked to see it,” said Gary Wassner, the chief executive of Hilldun, who was stunned Sunday by the video that ricocheted around social media.
Wassner noted that Kolb, who is a fixture at the shows, wearing Thom Browne and supporting C.F.D.A. board members and C.F.D.A. Vogue Fashion Fund nominees and alumni, was “a very measured, calm person. It’s not in character.”
He is also a vegetarian, who, through his work at the C.F.D.A., helped get fur off the runway, according to Mickey Boardman, the editorial director of Paper Magazine. Last year, the C.F.D.A. put out a statement saying it “will no longer promote animal fur” at any official N.Y.F.W. events, including on “its Fashion Calendar, social media channel and website.”
Still, said Wassner, “It was inappropriate. It was dangerous. They were there uninvited, and they were trespassing. I understand being outraged, but you can’t get physical. I’m not on the C.F.D.A. board, but if I had done that I would imagine the board would ask me to step down.”
In a statement, Kolb said: “I reacted inappropriately to an incident at a show earlier today. It wasn’t my place to do so. I should have let the security team handle the situation.”
He declined efforts to speak more extensively or to answer questions about the incident.
Mason Melito, who described himself as a senior campaigner with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said that “the violence the C.E.O. of the CFDA himself showed toward us in his attempt to silence us just mirrors the violence in the wool industry, an industry where animals’ voices are silenced behind closed doors. They’re robbed of their freedom, mutilated, and ultimately killed. All for the sake of unnecessary fashion trends.”
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