Amid the hustle, bustle and endless content creation of fashion month, you may have missed it: a grainy video showing a woman in a fluffy dress emerging from the sidelines of a major SS25 show. She stomps down the runway, hips swaying, holding a placard that reads: ‘F*CK FEATHERS!’ Alas, the shaggy figure only gets about halfway down the runway before being tackled by security. In the space of that short trot, though, she was really giving. Who was this seductive figure? I had to find out.
This wasn’t the first time an animal rights activist had staged an intervention at a fashion show, but it definitely was one of the cuntiest actions of late. Her name? Natasha Garnier, a resident of Lyons who, a few years ago, went vegan after adopting her dog, Sandy. Not satisfied with the impact of her own, personal actions, Garnier went on to become a full-time activist for PETA to try and change other people’s minds. Now, five days a week, she works to change the fate of animals used and abused in the industries of fashion, food, entertainment and cosmetics. I spoke to Garnier about the action, fashion and that walk.
Why did you decide to disrupt some shows this season?
My reasons for doing this are quite simple. Animals are sentient beings who feel pain, suffering, joy and other emotions. They do not deserve to be exploited and killed for fashion, food products, experiments, entertainment or for any other purpose. And the reason we disrupted Fashion Week was because these events are the perfect platform to attract maximum attention.
How do you decide which brands you’re actually going to target?
We try to establish contact. We also buy shares [in the companies] and we attend AGMs [an annual meeting of a company’s shareholders] in order to ask them questions about what they’re doing. But they always try to find a way to ignore what we’re saying. So that’s why we decided to do things differently. We have found that jumping on the runway of their shows is a great way to get attention.
How do you get in?
I can’t reveal exactly how we get in, but I can definitely say that as long as animals are exploited and killed for fashion, we will continue to pop up on the runway to speak out for them.
So you can’t tell me if you disguised yourself as a fashion student?
In order for us to be more efficient for the animals, we have to keep that information confidential.
“I can’t reveal exactly how we get in, but I can say that as long as animals are exploited and killed for fashion, we will continue to pop up on the runway.”
That’s fair enough. I couldn’t help but notice that when you actually got on the runway, you had quite an amazing walk.
Thank you!
Did you practise it?
Not at all, to be honest, but actually there’s a little story here. When I was in university, I was always very attracted to the fashion world, and it was my dream to be part of the fashion crowd. When I was on the runway it suddenly hit me that I was walking the runway of one of the biggest luxury brands in the world, in Paris, which is the capital of fashion – and I was doing it to speak out for the animals. I was there doing something I always wanted to do.
“If you walk into a show without an invitation and you’re holding a sign, it’s not a crime.”
How did the security treat you when they escorted you off the runway?
There were two of us who disrupted the show. I got to walk longer than her. She was taken away rather quickly compared to me, but she was there for 10 seconds which is actually a long time, because we have done disruptions where we have been taken away in two seconds. It was very rare that I got to walk the runway for that long. The security detained us for about 45 minutes at the venue, and then they called the police, and the police came to take us to the station. While we waited for the police, the security did everything they could in their power to scare us; they were just trying to intimidate us and deter us from doing something like this again. But if you walk into a show without an invitation and you’re holding a sign, it’s not a crime.
Text: Eilidh Duffy