Seeing the “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt everywhere?
It's no secret that Conner Ives is one of London's brightest design talents. The upcycled T-shirt dresses he shows on the London Fashion Week runway are often found on fashion's cool kids and A-listers alike, but his latest design, a simple white tee, has taken off like no other.
As he took his bow at the end of his autumn/winter 2025 show in February, the American-born creative wore a T-shirt of his own design, printed with the words “Protect the Dolls,” a slogan meant to demonstrate his solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, specifically with trans women, who are affectionally called “dolls.”
As stylish as they are sustainable.
The T-shirt came at a time when advocates and allies are calling for more support while trans rights are constantly being challenged. Just today, the UK Supreme Court ruled over the definition of a woman, with five judges unanimously deciding that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates, marking yet another setback in the trans rights movement.
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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.
To celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility, GLAMOUR got two iconic women together to chat sisterhood, solidarity, and trans joy.
