For the good of animals, we’re celebrating the first fur-free New York Fashion Week

Courtesy of Steve Kolb

PJ Smith: As the fashion industry continues to evolve, what do you think consumers have come to expect from brands/designers regarding sustainability and social responsibility? How does this expectation shape how the CFDA promotes American fashion? 

Steven: Consumers today expect more from brands than just great design. They want to understand how something is made, where it comes from, and what a brand stands for. Sustainability and social responsibility are now part of that conversation. 

At the CFDA, we support designers with the information, tools and resources they need to make responsible choices while still letting them define what is right for their individual businesses. Sustainability has been a pillar of our work for more than a decade, and our resources increasingly connect sustainability with innovation, materials, and the ways designers build their businesses for the future.

PJ: From your perspective as an industry leader, what role do you think fashion has in helping to advance conversations around sustainability, ethics and animal welfare? 

Steven: Fashion has an enormous cultural reach, so when the industry changes, it can help shift attitudes as well. But I think action matters more than talking about it. 

Our decision to make the official New York Fashion Week schedule fur-free beginning in September 2026 is one example. It followed years of engagement with Humane World for Animals and Collective Fashion Justice and reflects where the industry and society are moving. At the same time, our responsibility is to help designers navigate that change and provide them with access to alternatives and information that sustain creativity.  

PJ: Luxury and innovation are increasingly intertwined. How do you see next-generation, fur-free materials—including bio-based materials—shaping the future of fashion and redefining what luxury means? 

Steven: Luxury has always been about creativity, quality, craft and desire. I don’t think those things change. What changes are the tools and materials available to designers to achieve them. 

Incredible innovation in bio-based and next-generation materials gives designers new creative possibilities.  

The exciting part for me is that designers don’t have to think of these materials as a compromise or a substitute. The opportunity is to use innovation to create something new and desirable in its own right. That can become part of what modern luxury means. 

PJ: For young designers entering the industry now, what advice would you give about building a successful career while helping to shape fashion’s future? 

Steven: Know what you stand for but also understand that intention isn’t enough. You have to do the work. 

Think about sustainability, materials, sourcing and social responsibility from the beginning rather than trying to add them later. Ask questions. Educate yourself. Take advantage of the new tools and technologies that are available to you. The choices designers make at the beginning of the creative process can have an enormous impact on the finished product.  

And don’t lose sight of the most important thing: Make great fashion. Responsibility and innovation shouldn’t come at the expense of creativity. The designers who will shape the future are the ones who can bring all of those things together. 

As designers continue to meet the moment by bringing compassion by design into their creations, the fur-free momentum is unstoppable. For example, on September 14, the Television Academy will present its first fur-free Primetime Emmy Awards, after announcing a fur-free policy across the red carpets of all its ceremonies earlier this year; invitations to the awards ceremony inform guests of the policy.  

After New York Fashion Week announced it was going fur-free, we partnered with the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Italy’s version of the CFDA and the exclusive owner of the “Milano Fashion Week” trademark, to announce that it will no longer promote fur at any official Milan Fashion Week event, including on social media.  

In 2023, the British Fashion Council announced it would no longer promote fur during London Fashion Week. A year later, it went the extra mile by banning the use of skins from wild animals, like crocodiles and pythons. 

This means that three out of the big four fashion weeks have set policies that exclude the promotion of animal fur. This will go a long way in preventing fur from becoming popular again in the future and driving innovation for materials that have the same aesthetic without the cruelty.