During the week preceding the Conner Ives parade at the end of February at the London Fashion Week, in the middle of a list of apparently endless tasks of model fittings and adding a final touch to each look, the 28-year-old designer wrote a reminder in the application of notes of his phone: “Make a t-shirt that says something.”
The day before the show was the only thing he still had on his list. He caught a white t-shirt of a pile of dead and used heat transfer paper to print a slogan that described what he felt for the moment: “Protect the dolls”. The entire process lasted two or three minutes.
He then wore this shirt – which uses an affectionate term for trans women – on the track when closing his show. The shirt continued to fly the spotlight.
“We woke up the next morning and our whole reception box was only people like” where should I buy this? “” Said Ives in a telephone interview from his apartment in London. “Everything happened so quickly.”
Since then, the shirt, which sells about $ 99, has become a feeling, seen on celebrities like the actor of the “last of us” Pedro Pascal, singer Troye Sivan and designer Haider Ackermann. Most sales products are donated to Trans Lifeline, a non -profit community group and a hotline of crisis. And the request for shirts has so far exceeded the ability of his team to fulfill orders.
Political slogans on clothing, especially on t-shirts, were an increasing trend, creating a perfect opportunity for shirts “protect dolls” to prosper. “In modern times, what could be more omnipresent than the graphic t-shirt?” Mr. Ives said.
