H&M · London18 September 2026

PETA protesters interrupt H&M's London Fashion Week show over a wool-cruelty claim

H&M's London Fashion Week show was interrupted three times on Thursday by PETA protesters, over wool. The show was called H&M&YOU&I: A Fashion Story, staged at the National Hall at Olympia, and it was H&M's second year running on the London schedule. The sourcing detail underneath it is the part worth keeping. H&M Group set itself a target of end-2025 for all its virgin sheep wool to carry one of those two certifications, so the schemes are not a line on the sustainability page, they are the buying rule. Two unrelated inspection regimes, each with its own auditors, both cleared the same farm.

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01H&M'S LONDON FASHION WEEK SHOW, MADE WITH NICK KNIGHT AND HIS PLATFORM SHOWSTUDIO, WAS INTERRUPTED THREE TIMES BY PETA PROTESTERS ON 17 SEPTEMBER 2026.

02THREE PROTESTERS, TWO WOMEN AND ONE MAN, CARRIED A SIGN READING H&M: WOOL IS BLOODY CRUEL. DROP IT. THE FIRST WAS ON THE RUNWAY WITHIN THE OPENING MINUTES.

03EACH ONE WALKED THE FULL LENGTH OF THE RUNWAY. ONE REACHED BACKSTAGE AND LEFT ALONGSIDE THE MODELS. SECURITY WALKED THEM OUT WITHOUT PHYSICAL CONTACT.

04BEHIND IT IS A PETA INVESTIGATION PUBLISHED IN APRIL 2026, FILMED ON A SOUTH AFRICAN WOOL FARM THAT SELLS THROUGH A BROKER SUPPLYING H&M GROUP.

05NATIVA, THE SCHEME THAT CERTIFIED THAT FARM, IS A WOOL-TRACEABILITY BRAND OWNED BY THE CHARGEURS GROUP AND AUDITED BY THE OUTSIDE CERTIFIER ECOCERT.

06THE RESPONSIBLE WOOL STANDARD SITS ON A SEPARATE TRACK: OWNED BY THE NONPROFIT TEXTILE EXCHANGE, WITH ITS OWN INDEPENDENT CERTIFICATION BODIES AUDITING FARM BY FARM.

07H&M GROUP'S ANIMAL WELFARE POLICY, DATED JANUARY 2023, NAMES EXACTLY TWO APPROVED SCHEMES FOR VIRGIN SHEEP WOOL: THE RESPONSIBLE WOOL STANDARD, AND NATIVA.

08PETA SAYS THE FARM IT FILMED HELD BOTH.

09THAT POLICY ALSO STATES THAT NO ANIMALS SHOULD BE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF OUR PRODUCTS. H&M GROUP HAD NOT ADDRESSED THURSDAY'S PROTEST BY FRIDAY MORNING.

10TWO SCHEMES, TWO SETS OF AUDITORS, ONE FARM BETWEEN THEM, AND A CAMPAIGN GROUP'S CAMERA FOUND WHAT NEITHER AUDIT DID.

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