The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), which owns and organizes the New York Fashion Week (NYFW) calendar, announced today that it will not permit events on the official NYFW schedule to feature animal fur. The regulation, which will begin in September 2026, is in partnership with the Humane World for Animals and Collective Fashion Justice, which the CFDA has long collaborated with.
The September 2026 start date, for the Spring/Summer 2027 collections, will give designers time to adjust their materials and show plans, per the CFDA. This means that fur may still appear on the FW26 runways in February.
“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.
Under the no-fur regulation, farmed or trapped fur from animals killed specifically for their pelts (including mink, fox, rabbit, karakul lamb, chinchilla, coyote, and raccoon dog) will be prohibited. There will be exceptions in place for animal fur obtained by Indigenous communities through traditional hunting practices.
“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.”
In officially banning fur, NYFW joins London Fashion Week, which was the first major fashion week to ban fur back in 2018, with Copenhagen Fashion Week following suit in 2022. Brands including Gucci and Chanel have also banned fur dating back to 2018. Milan Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week both still allow fur. Fashion media companies including Condé Nast, which owns Vogue, Glamour and Vanity Fair, as well as Elle and InStyle have banned fur from their editorial content and advertising.
“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. At Collective Fashion Justice, we hope Milan and Paris fashion weeks will follow the CFDA and British Fashion Council’s lead, with our support,” said Emma Håkansson, founding director of Collective Fashion Justice.
Many brands that show at NYFW, including Coach and Michael Kors, haven’t used animal fur in years. But this hasn’t stopped Peta from storming the Coach runway on multiple occasions, in protest not of the brand’s use of fur, but leather. Some brands, such as Khaite and Altuzarra, have used shearling in recent seasons, though this will not be banned under the new regulation, given sheep are not killed primarily for their fur. On the FW25 runways, fur rose in prominence, but much of the material was faux.
“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,” Kolb said.
More from this author:
Art Basel Miami 2025 Cheat Sheet
