By Lucien Libert

PARIS (Reuters – Marie Cohuet hid for more than two hours in a toilet in the Louvre museum, planning her protest against the environmental harm that the fashion industry is causing.

Cohuet drew closer to the show’s opening as the event approached. However, staff were distracted from the glamorous arrival of Catherine Deneuve.

Cohuet sounded animatedly through her cellphone and entered the building.

The catwalk parade started to an orchestra of church bells and thunderous organ music. She waited and watched, then she pulled up her banner and joined other models on the runway lit by a chandelier.

According to the environmental activist, 26 year old, Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth), she described the moments before Louis Vuitton security personnel bundled her onto the ground.

The slogan “overconsumption equals extinction” was written on her banner.

Cohuet announced that on Oct. 5 she stood against an industry that failed to live up to its commitments to combat climate change.

She accused LVMH, despite having promised to lower its greenhouse gas emissions, of excluding sub-contractors in its calculations.

Reuters asked LVMH for comment. They said that the 2030 goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions more than 50%, which was announced April 1, included subcontractors.

Critics claim that fast fashion is wasteful and exploits low-paid workers. It also pollutes our environment through the intensive use pesticides in cotton cultivation.

Cohuet was on the runway with her heart in her stomach, as she gazed out at the stars of the cinema, LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault, and his family.

Cohuet stated, “Sometimes a civil disobedience act is necessary, sometimes we have to challenge head on those who screw the planet today and those who are trampling upon human rights.”

She was a teenage girl who expressed anger at global leaders’ failure to address climate change. In the last few years, she had been involved in protests and organized petitions. She also lobbied for legislators.

Cohuet claimed she avoided unnecessary clothing purchases and air travel. However, there is only so much an individual can do. Cohuet said governments must be involved and that leaders from big businesses are needed to make real changes.

Cohuet is not optimistic about any meaningful progress during the United Nations COP26 conference on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland.

She stated that although promises can be made on paper, things often falter. States fail to make concrete acts.