Steven Kolb, the chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the leading trade organization for the fashion industry, was involved in an altercation Sunday afternoon at a runway show 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 about five animal-rights activists from the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 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 had been 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 C.F.D.A. for two decades, stunned industry onlookers and celebrities.
Many in the business have witnessed show interruptions by animal rights activists, but few have seen a major industry figure physically intervene. In this case, it happened at a runway show that was attended by Hollywood royalty such as Sharon Stone, Michelle Williams and Lupita Nyong’o but was largely overlooked by top fashion editors.
But as video footage ricocheted around later in the day, it became all anyone at New York Fashion Week shows could talk about.
“I was shocked to see it,” said Gary Wassner, the chief executive of Hilldun, shortly after walking into a show for Sergio Hudson.
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 of the confrontation on Sunday: “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.”
At a runway show for Brandon Maxwell an hour later, Blake Abbie, the editor of A Magazine Curated By, a French indie fashion publication, said: “No human being should ever touch another human being, let alone cover another human’s being mouth with their hand, let alone put someone in a leg lock. Especially someone who represents American designers.”
Kolb addressed his actions in a statement on Sunday. “I reacted inappropriately to an incident at a show earlier today,” he said. “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. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the C.F.D.A. said that Mr. Kolb “acknowledged fully that he responded inappropriately in the moment and that the matter should have been handled by security.” The statement added that the C.F.D.A. agreed that such “disruptions” should be handled by “the security professionals in place.”
The spokeswoman declined to say whether Kolb was being disciplined or would have to step down from his job.
Reached by phone on Sunday evening, Mason Melito, the protester seen at the beginning of the Fashionista video, said the “violence” displayed by Kolb toward the group “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.”
He said he was “not physically harmed” in the scuffle.
“Definitely a bit shocking, you know, to have someone put their face or hand in my face,” said Melito, who also identified himself as a senior campaigner with PETA. “But again, it’s really nothing compared to what the sheep go through at all.”
Still, he said that the organization would be filing a police report against Kolb.
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