Tap water it is for Milan Fashion Week…

The premium mineral water company, owned by Italian investment firm LMDV Capital, says Ciao! to Milan Fashion Week and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. 

With the fourth corporate sponsor now cutting ties with Milan Fashion Week over its continued use of fur, this departure marks a turning point for Camera Moda, the body that organizes the influential event and who has faced mounting controversy in recent years — the latest being a sustained campaign from CAFT and the anti-fur movement.

Even Italian companies, like Acqua Fiuggi and its parent LMDV Capital—whose goal is to ‘direct investments in leading Italian companies that embody the excellence of Made in Italy’—are turning their backs on CNMI over its poor decisions.

Over 47 days, activists in 9 countries and 16 cities executed 40 on the ground actions at Fiuggi affiliates: LMDV Capital, EssilorLuxottica, and Mangusta Capital.

In February 2025, LMDV Capital, through Acqua Fiuggi, signed a two-year partnership with CNMI, yet that partnership was cut short after our anti-fur campaign turned its attention to LMDV.

Milan Fashion Week won’t be able to weather this controversy, because the anti-fur movement is not backing down. The voluntary fur guidelines released in May 2026 were a lackluster response to the campaign, perhaps a desperate attempt to make it stop. But without enforcement, these guidelines are meaningless and nothing more than corporate humane-washing.

How many more sponsors is CNMI willing to lose? Will it dig its heels in all the way to oblivion, ending up the last holdout still propping up the fur industry?

We’ll find out soon enough, but one thing is certain: Milan Fashion Week WILL go fur-free. The only question is how much longer they’re willing to hold out, while damaging the reputation of the Italian luxury fashion industry every step of the way.

JOIN US IN MILAN DURING THE CAFT FERAL SUMMER TOUR! We are making stops in London (June 14 – 17), Milan (June 18 – 22), and Paris (June 23 – 25). Sign up here.

PRESS RELEASE BELOW:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Acqua Fiuggi Becomes Fourth Company to Drop Partnership with Milan Fashion Week After Anti-Fur Protests

Milan– (June 9, 2026) – Acqua Fiuggi, owned by Italian investment firm LMDV Capital, has officially ended its partnership with Milan Fashion Week over its continued use of fur. The global anti-fur campaign targeting Milan Fashion Week, announced by the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) on January 8, 2026, has now claimed its fourth major corporate sponsor, following the departures of DHL, Wella, and Visa earlier this year.

There were 40 protest actions over the course of the 47 day campaign across Europe, North America, and Asia. Demonstrations were held at affiliates of Acqua Fiuggi including LMDV Capital offices and EssilorLuxottica, the global eyewear conglomerate whose Chief Strategy Officer, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, is also the majority owner of Acqua Fiuggi through his investment firm LMDV Capital.

Among the actions was a 150-person demonstration outside the Washington, D.C. home of a company executive, one of several home protests staged during the campaign. 

Activists also protested Ray-Ban and Oliver Peoples, luxury eyewear retailers owned by EssilorLuxottica. These brands were protest targets because of Del Vecchio’s overlapping roles: he owns LMDV Capital and Acqua Fiuggi, is an heir to EssilorLuxottica, and serves as its Chief Strategy Officer and President of Ray-Ban.

In an email sent to CAFT on June 9, 2026, Acqua Fiuggi confirmed: “effective as of May 26, 2026, all relationships between Acqua e Terme di Fiuggi S.p.A. and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana have been formally terminated. Accordingly, our company is no longer involved in, affiliated with, or associated in any way with any initiative, activity, or position attributable to such organization.”

The Acqua Fiuggi withdrawal follows CNMI’s Voluntary Guidelines on the Use of Fur published May 15, 2026, which stop short of a binding fur-free policy and explicitly declines to impose a ban, in sharp contrast to enforceable bans already adopted by London, New York, Copenhagen, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Melbourne fashion weeks.

“We commend Acqua Fiuggi for making the right decision to cut ties with Milan Fashion Week and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. Four major sponsors have now walked away from CNMI rather than be associated with cruel and outdated fur. CNMI’s voluntary guidelines were a clear attempt to stop the exodus, and Fiuggi’s departure proves it’s not working,” said Suzie Stork, Executive Director of CAFT. “These guidelines are not a fur-free policy but likely a concession to LVMH, whose brand Fendi holds a board seat at CNMI. They carry no enforcement and no guarantee that a single fur garment will stay off the runway. CNMI chose corporate interests over integrity, and activists will be protesting Milan Fashion Week and all its affiliates until it adopts a real fur free policy ”

Advocates argue that corporate sponsorships of fur-holdouts like Milan Fashion Week uphold and fund the fur industry. Fur production has been extensively documented to cause severe suffering to millions of animals, significant environmental damage, and heightened public health risks.

With Men’s Milan Fashion Week scheduled for June 19–23, 2026, CAFT has announced that protests will continue.

About CAFT: The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) is a grassroots organization dedicated to dismantling the global fur industry through hard-hitting, volunteer-driven, decentralized pressure campaigns. CAFT represents activists around the world who expose the cruelty of fur farming and hold corporations accountable for their exploitation of fur-bearing animals.

For more information, visit abolishfur.org or follow CAFT on Instagram @caftusa.

Pictures and videos of Acqua Fiuggi, LMDV Capital, and affiliate protests: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kVhWhuZ_3kbcj6USnqs7iBkvJBP7LPO6?usp=drive_link
Pictures and videos of Protests at Milan Fashion Week: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14xjK8VOaANhqIUzaSM6Nh-9vfJ551GAn
Media Contact:
Suzie Stork
Executive Director
310-853-3476
[email protected]