Three PETA demonstrators walked onto the runway during an H&M show in London on Thursday night, carrying signs that read “H&M: Wool is BLOODY Cruel. Drop it!” as models continued their walks around them. Video circulating on social media shows the protesters marching in formation across the catwalk while the show carried on, with the models appearing to pay them little attention.
The disruption, first reported by Breitbart News, was the second time in roughly a week that activists targeted a brand owned by the H&M Group. According to the fashion and beauty outlet Fashionista, PETA supporters had disrupted a New York show for COS, another label in the group’s portfolio, the previous week. Unlike that earlier demonstration, security at the London event allowed the protesters to leave the runway on their own, and no physical contact was reported. The H&M presentation resumed and finished as planned.
A Campaign Built on an Investigation
PETA UK did not downplay the action. In a post on X, the organization’s British arm wrote, “Not one, not two, but THREE PETA supporters jumped on the runway to expose the suffering behind wool,” and shared footage of the moment.
The group says the back-to-back protests are part of a broader push to persuade the H&M Group to stop using wool altogether. In a press release, PETA UK tied the campaign to a recently published PETA Asia investigation into a NATIVA-certified wool operation in South Africa that the organization says is connected to the retailer’s supply chain.
At an earlier protest, according to the group’s account, three activists described as “bloodied and bruised” held what was presented as a dead sheep outside a venue while attendees arrived for a show. The group said the demonstrators carried a sign reading, “Sheep beaten, kicked and killed for wool.”
PETA Vice President Elisa Allen framed the runway actions as a question of accountability. “How much more evidence showing sheep kicked, struck, and left bleeding in shearing sheds will it take for H&M to take responsibility?” Allen said. She added that the retailer “must kick wool cruelty off its catwalks and out of its collections,” and repeated the organization’s long-running position that “choosing vegan clothing is the only way to guarantee that no animals were harmed.”
Business as Usual on the Catwalk
H&M, for its part, did not let the interruption derail the evening’s purpose: unveiling a collaboration with the British photographer Nick Knight. According to WWD, the project blends what the report described as “historical romance, cinematic menswear, and AI-enabled visuals” — an unusual combination for a Swedish fast-fashion label best known for high-volume, trend-driven basics.
The show’s decision to keep going fits a pattern for the H&M Group, which has now absorbed two PETA actions in two cities in a matter of days without cancelling either event. The contrast between the two responses — COS in New York and H&M in London — also suggests the company has not settled on a single security playbook for handling such disruptions.
PETA has a long history of using fashion weeks and runway shows as a stage for animal-welfare campaigns, calculating that the imagery travels further than a conventional press release. The wool campaign is a newer front for the organization, which has spent years targeting leather, fur, and exotic skins. Wool has proven a harder target for campaigners because it is often marketed as a natural, renewable material and is woven through the supply chains of brands that have already dropped fur.
Whether the pressure changes anything at H&M remains to be seen. The company has not publicly responded to the London protest or to the PETA Asia investigation cited by the activists. For now, the runway footage — models striding past sign-carrying demonstrators — is doing the work PETA intended it to do, circulating well beyond the invited audience in the room.
The H&M Group operates several brands beyond its flagship label, including COS, Arket, and Weekday, giving the campaign multiple potential targets if it continues. PETA UK’s language suggests it intends to keep going, describing the protests as a series rather than isolated incidents.
For consumers, the dispute lands in the middle of a broader reckoning over how clothing gets made and what companies can credibly claim about their materials. Certification programs like NATIVA, which appeared in PETA’s investigation, are designed to assure buyers that wool meets certain environmental and ethical standards. When campaigners challenge those certifications directly, the argument shifts from whether a brand uses wool to whether the assurances attached to it mean anything.
That is a harder question for a fast-fashion giant to answer in a runway review cycle — and likely why PETA chose the catwalk, rather than a shareholder meeting, to ask it.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/19/peta-protesters-crash-hm-runway-show-in-london/