New York Fashion Week will ban animal fur from its official calendar starting in September 2026, intensifying pressure on holdouts like Milan and Paris as brands, activists, and councils push fashion toward wildlife-free materials.
New York Fashion Week is drawing a clear line on fur. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) has confirmed that, starting with the Spring/Summer 2027 shows in September 2026, no events on the official calendar will be allowed to feature animal fur. The move, developed with Humane World for Animals and Collective Fashion Justice, turns a long-simmering shift on the New York runways into formal policy.
Under the new rule, farmed or trapped fur from animals killed specifically for their pelts will be banned from all CFDA-sanctioned shows, with a narrow exception for fur obtained by Indigenous communities through traditional hunting practices. “There is already little to no fur shown at NYFW, but by taking this position, the CFDA hopes to inspire American designers to think more deeply about the fashion industry’s impact on animals,” Steven Kolb, CEO and president of the CFDA, said in a statement. “Consumers are moving away from products associated with animal cruelty, and we want to position American fashion as a leader on those fronts, while also driving material innovation,” he said.
The CFDA’s partners have spent years laying the groundwork for this moment. Humane World for Animals has documented how recent New York seasons were already devoid of “real animal fur” as designers such as Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren adopted fur-free policies.
Collective Fashion Justice, which advised Melbourne Fashion Week and the City of Sydney on wildlife-free rules covering fur, wild skins, and feathers, now sees New York’s policy as part of a broader effort to remove wild animals from fashion supply chains altogether. “We applaud the CFDA for using its unique influence on American fashion to help usher in a fur-free future,” PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at Humane World for Animals, said in a statement. “It’s policies like this that are paving the way for material innovation that will create a cleaner, more humane fashion industry without sacrificing creativity and beauty.”
New York now joins a circuit of fashion weeks that have already turned away from pelts. In 2018, the British Fashion Council announced that London Fashion Week’s official schedule would be completely fur free, making it the first of the big four capitals to drop animal fur from the runway. Copenhagen Fashion Week followed with a fur ban and has since tightened its sustainability requirements so participating brands must confirm that collections are free from virgin fur, wild animal skins, and feathers.
At the brand level, luxury groups such as Kering and major houses including Gucci and Prada have adopted fur-free policies over the past decade, signalling that traditional pelts are no longer worth the ethical or reputational cost. Conde Nast also recently announced it would remove fur from Vogue.
Within New York Fashion Week, many marquee American names had already moved on from fur. Coach and Michael Kors, both long-time fixtures on the calendar, stopped using animal fur years ago, even as PETA continued to stage runway protests spotlighting leather and exotic skins. On the Fall/Winter 2025 runways, fur-like silhouettes returned mostly in faux materials, mirroring a wider revival of faux fur as designers experiment with synthetic and recycled textures that recreate the drama of pelts without the animal cost.
PETA has urged the CFDA to extend its policy to so-called exotic skins, pointing out that other major fashion weeks already restrict both fur and wildlife skins. Collective Fashion Justice has used the CFDA’s own platform to champion wildlife-free fashion weeks that remove fur, wild animal skins, and feathers entirely, and encourage brands to explore plant-based, recycled, and bio-based alternatives instead.
“The CFDA has further cemented its position as a leading, innovative fashion council on the global stage by formally moving beyond unethical and unsustainable animal fur,” said founding director Emma Håkansson. “At Collective Fashion Justice, we hope Milan and Paris fashion weeks will follow the CFDA and British Fashion Council’s lead, with our support.”
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