‘Skinned’ Peta protester storms runway at NYFW Coach show and Anna Wintour’s stone-cold reaction is priceless

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Anna Wintour’s face was a real picture when a New York Fashion Week show was interrupted by Peta protesters.

The animal rights organisation has become famous for its divisive methods of campaigning over the years, whether it’s shocking exhibits or receiving backlash from communities over billboards.

And in 2023 they’re still going strong, with a ‘skinned’ Peta supporter crashing the runway during Coach’s show on Thursday night (September 7).

Two female Peta campaigners boldly stormed down the catwalk, with one covered in unpleasant body paint to create the illusion that she had been skinned alive.

She had, ‘Coach: Leather Kills’ emblazoned across her bare chest, confidently strutting down the runway with a smile before being removed by security.

A second protestor walked behind her, wearing a mauve satin two-piece and holding a sign above her head with the same message, as well as Peta’s logo.

Peta saw a chance and took it at the Coach show on Thursday (Picture: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock)

While all of this was going on, celebrity audience members like Vogue editor-in-chief Anna and singer Jennifer Lopez could only watch.

Revealing their intentions after the protest, Peta’s executive Vice President Tracy Reiman issued a statement.

‘Today’s conscientious consumers know that the future of fashion lies in innovative vegan materials, not in cows’ sliced-off skin,’ she said.

‘Peta is shaking up Coach’s catwalk to drive home the message that leather belongs in the annals of history, not in designers’ current collections.’ 

In a later press release, Peta claimed that cows ‘killed for leather may be skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious’ and ‘after they endure castration, tail-docking, and dehorning, without any painkillers, on farms.’

The animal rights organisation protested against Coach’s use of leather (Picture: Getty/AFP) Activists carried signs reading: ‘Coach: Leather Kills’ (Picture: Getty/AFP)

‘A Peta exposé of the world’s largest leather processor—which has supplied Coach—showed that workers brand calves on the face, beat cows and bulls, and shock them with electric prods,’ it also said.

As for Coach, the designer brand is known for its leather goods.

Sitting front row, J Lo specifically has been an ambassador for the label since 2019 and is often seen wearing their luxury pieces.

Vogue’s Anna, meanwhile, looked stunned as her mouth fell open when the activist stormed past her before being taken off.

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The exec, 73, has been targeted by Peta herself in the past on numerous occasions, with the company confronting her and shouting, ‘Shame on you!’, after NYFW in 2018.

In 1996, in fact, an anti-fur protestor ambushed her in a restaurant and threw a dead raccoon onto her plate.

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour was stunned (Picture: Vegan/Backgrid) She sat front row alongside Edward Enninful and Jennifer Lopez (Picture: Nina Westervelt/WWD via Getty Images) J Lo has been a Coach ambassador for several years (Picture: Nina Westervelt/WWD via Getty Images)

Most recently, the charity penned a letter to Anna and the 2023 Met Gala co-chairs, urging them to instruct designers invited to the bash to steer clear of fur, exotic skins, and feathers.

While Anna doesn’t often give Peta attention, she made comments in 2020 when chatting to Naomi Campbell on her YouTube live-stream series after being urged to ban fur from her magazines.

She said: ‘I think [the pandemic] is an opportunity for all of us to look at our industry and to look at our lives, and to re-think our values, and to really think about the waste, and the amount of money, and consumption, and excess – and I obviously include myself in this – that we have all indulged in and how we really need to re-think what this industry stands for.

‘And we need to have more of an emphasis on luxury, on creativity, and on craft. We need to celebrate the art of fashion, and the design of fashion. And maybe we just need to all slow down and enjoy it much more, and not always be saying, “What’s new? What’s next?”.’

Anna has come under fire from Peta on many occasions (Picture: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

Following her admission, Peta called on her to ‘make good on her recent comments’ with her actions.

‘It is certainly excessive and wasteful to confine a wild animal to a metal cage, beat her to death, and skin her for a fur garment,’ Peta founder Ingrid Newkirk said at the time.

‘Peta supports Anna Wintour’s pledge to re-examine her values, as they have caused cruelty to animals for years, and we suggest a departure from the old-style, caveperson fashion previously rife in Vogue.’

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