Alan Cumming is swapping his sweeping The Traitors wardrobe for something a little more streamlined and a lot more animal friendly. The actor and host is fronting a new PETA push that casts vegan leather as “sexy and powerful,” landing just as fashion crowds descend on New York for the Fall/Winter 2026 shows. It is a campaign that leans into his flair for drama while making a pointed case that high style does not need to come at animals’ expense.
The move fits neatly with Cumming’s long running advocacy for vegan living, but the styling is fresh: think sharp cactus leather, glossy faux boots, and a wink to the theatrical capes that made him a breakout reality host. By tying that look to a high profile fashion moment, the campaign is betting that viewers will see cruelty free materials as aspirational, not alternative.
The Traitors host steps into vegan leather spotlight
Alan Cumming has become inseparable from the gothic glamour of The Traitors, where his capes, gloves, and tartan suits are as central as the backstabbing gameplay. In the new PETA visuals, he nods to that persona but trades the heavy wool and leather for sleek plant based pieces that still read as villain chic. The message is simple: the same theatrical energy that powers his reality host wardrobe can be dialed up without using animal skins.
The campaign positions Cumming as the face of a broader push by PETA to make vegan leather feel aspirational right as New York Fashi crowds arrive for the Fall/Winter 2026 shows. In the group’s own framing, viewers “NEED” to “KNOW” that Alan Cumming and PETA are using that runway focused moment to argue that the fashion calendar no longer needs traditional hides, a point underscored in materials tied to New York Fashi.
From Traitors capes to cactus leather and beyond
Visually, the new images are a deliberate inversion of Cumming’s usual all black leather heavy look. Instead of wearing all black animal leather, the Avengers: Doomsday actor is photographed in a cactus leather jacket by All Saints, paired with vegan leather trousers and boots that keep the silhouette sharp. The styling leans into his reputation for campy elegance while quietly pointing out that cactus based textiles and other synthetics can deliver the same polish as traditional hides, a detail highlighted in coverage of how Instead of his usual costume, Cumming looks in vegan leather.
The campaign materials also play with the idea of power dressing, framing vegan leather as a way to feel “sexy and powerful” without the ethical baggage of animal products. That framing is echoed in summaries that stress how Alan Cumming is the star of PETA’s new vegan leather push and that the group is using his fashion forward image to challenge the dominance of animal skins at New York Fa, a point reinforced in descriptions that spell out how famous fashion event has become a stage for debates over wearing leather.
A long running partnership with PETA
For Cumming, this is not a sudden pivot but the latest chapter in a long running collaboration with animal rights advocates. He has previously fronted cheeky campaigns that put his veganism front and center, including a blitz that splashed “Not a Dairy Queen” across New York City to promote dairy free treats. That earlier push, described as Alan Cumming’s Vegan Blitz Hits NYC, showed him leaning into humor to get passersby thinking about plant based options, a tone that PETA highlighted in its Not Dairy Queen materials.
More recently, he embraced the tagline “Alan Cumming Will Be Your Favorite Vegan Option After You See This,” posing as the “vegan option” in ads that ran on New York taxi tops and online. In that campaign, he urged anyone on the fence about veganism to “just do it” and called the lifestyle “so easy,” a message amplified in PETA’s description of how New Yorkers would see Alan Cumming naked as the vegan option and in his own site’s recap of the Commercials and PSAs collected under Alan Cumming Will.
Why vegan leather, and why now?
The timing of the new campaign is not accidental. PETA is rolling it out just ahead of New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2026, using Cumming’s profile to push designers and shoppers to rethink leather as they plan collections and wardrobes. In its own “NEED” and “KNOW” framing, the group stresses that Alan Cumming and PETA are seizing a moment when the fashion industry is already debating sustainability, and that New York Fashi crowds are primed to hear arguments for cactus leather, recycled synthetics, and other alternatives, a strategy spelled out in materials that link Cumming directly to Fashion Week Fall/Winter.
Vegan leather has moved from novelty to serious contender in recent years, with cactus based textiles, mushroom derived materials, and high quality polyurethane all vying for space in closets. By casting those fabrics as “sexy and powerful,” Cumming is trying to short circuit the idea that cruelty free fashion is automatically crunchy or second best. That argument is echoed in coverage that notes how Instead of his usual all black animal leather, the Avengers: Doomsday actor is now modeling a cactus leather jacket by All Saints and other vegan pieces, a styling choice detailed in reports on how Cumming looks in vegan leather.
Reality TV flair meets activist messaging
Cumming’s reality host persona is a big part of why this particular campaign lands with such a wink. On The Traitors, he presides over a castle full of scheming contestants, his outfits as theatrical as the betrayals. PETA leans into that energy by having him swap those capes for vegan leather while keeping the same arched eyebrow and sense of mischief, a connection that is underscored in descriptions of how Traitors Host Alan Cumming wears vegan leather for PETA and how the show itself stands apart from other celebrity competition formats, as noted in materials that describe how Traitors Host Alan.
That blend of camp and conviction has become something of a signature. In earlier efforts, he was happy to be the nearly naked “vegan option” on New York streets, and he has joked about lettuce “winning” in his own write ups of those stunts. PETA’s latest messaging builds on that history, with New Yorkers again being told that if someone is questioning being vegan, Cumming’s answer is to “just do it,” a line that appears in the group’s explanation of how Don Cumming is urging people to save animals in 2026 and in the taxi top ads described in New Yorkers will him as the vegan option.
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