PETA activist assaulted:
our statement
We are calling for accountability and justice after Steven Kolb, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, attacked and assaulted two PETA fashion protesters on a New York runway.
Anyone who commits assault should face arrest, rather than using their power and privilege to avoid justice.
On Sunday 13th September Kolb was videoed smothering a woman protestor – pinning her down with his legs while covering her mouth, and then forcibly pushing and covering the mouth of a male protester.
No one should be assaulted, intimidated or silenced for exercising their right to protest. This incident is part of a rise in attacks on activists both in America and around the globe by powerful corporate interests who feel entitled to silence those who challenge them.
Kolb’s actions reflect an industry built on violence. The glamour of fashion masks deep-seated violence inflicted upon women in workplaces from garment factories and cotton fields to modeling agencies.
We remember Jeyasre Kathiravel, a 21-year-old Dalit woman murdered while an employee at an H&M Group factory in India. We remember 45-year-old Paramasivam Pushpalatha who died after being refused help at a Victoria Secret factory in Sri Lanka. We stand with every person who has protested against fashion’s exploitation only to be met with more violence.
The use of physical force by a powerful man to silence and violently restrain a woman in New York reflects a culture of gender-based violence and intimidation that is endemic across the fashion industry.
Protest happens because of injustice. PETA activists were protesting the documented routine violence endured by sheep used for wool. Fashion needs to respond to protest and criticism with change, not brutal suppression.
Going on leave is not enough.
We are calling on the fashion community to engage in meaningful dialogue. Events like Manchester Fashion Week have demonstrated a better path forward by hosting panels on injustices and exploitation in the industry, featuring speakers from PETA. Open engagement and willingness to listen is urgently needed – not the brutal repression witnessed in New York. The industry must recognise that freedom of expression should be championed even when it challenges the status quo rather than serves corporate interests.
We note that Kolb has been placed on leave, but this is not enough. The impunity of powerful men in the industry must end. We cannot allow a culture of silence and inaction as personified by the fashion week crowd who sat by and let Kolb assault a woman. Nor can we accept the disturbing rhetoric that frames peaceful disruption as violence to justify physical assault.
Every fashion worker and activist has the right to speak, organise and protest without fear of violence or retaliation. We call on the fashion industry to stand with activists, workers and unions who speak up.