Soon after its appearance on the runway, the Conner Ives slogan tee took on a life of its own, adopted by celebrities and designers alike. Pedro Pascal, whose sister has come out as trans, wore the “Protect the Dolls” tee while celebrating his 50th birthday and designer Haider Ackermann, whose partner is Ives’ publicist, posed in his T-shirt next to actor Tilda Swinton. It even hit the stage with Troye Sivan last weekend at Coachella, with the “Youth” singer proudly sporting the tee on Saturday during his guest performance for Charli XCX’s set. He wore Conner’s design scrunched at the sleeves and cropped above the hips with Dr. Marten boots, dark jeans and double belts. That performance reportedly helped sell 200 pieces of the T-shirt in less than 24 hours.
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Conner did not set out to make a political statement. In fact, the designer told Vogue that he’s spent most of his time trying to keep fashion and politics separate. “But there was a shift in the last six months where that level of compartmentalisation just didn’t really feel relevant anymore,” Conner said in the interview. “When I think of the challenges that trans people in the States are facing right now, I just keep thinking about how scared I was when I was a 12-year-old gay white boy in an upper-middle-class suburb of New York City, let alone a trans girl in the middle of America under an administration that’s basically telling her that she doesn’t exist.”
On the eve of his fashion show, he cut together the T-shirt with leftover fabrics, and the rest was history.
All of the proceeds from the £75 “Protect the Dolls” tee go to Trans Lifeline, a US-based, trans-led nonprofit organisation that connects trans people to the community and offers them support via a peer support and crisis hotline.
