Conner Ives has never been a designer who mistakes quietude for elegance. The New York-born, London-based talent built his reputation on garments that feel at once deeply personal and precisely of-the-moment — vintage American references filtered through a British sensibility, femininity explored with both tenderness and irreverence. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins, Ives established himself as one of his generation’s most distinctive voices, his collections consistently threading emotion through construction with rare fluency.
It was at his Fall 2025 show during Settimana della moda di Londra that Ives stepped out for his finale bow wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “Protect the Dolls” — a show of solidarity with his trans friends across the United States. The gesture was instinctive rather than calculated. By his own account, the shirt was born out of necessity, a sense that he didn’t know what else he could do or say. That honesty — the admission that sometimes a slogan is all you have — is precisely what gave the piece its power.
Demand was immediate and overwhelming. Ives made the shirt available to the public, and it swiftly became one of the most sought-after pieces of 2025, worn by Pedro Pascal, Addison Rae, Troye Sivan, and Madonna. Over 17,000 shirts were sold, raising more than $600,000 for Trans Lifeline and Not A Phase in the UK. For a piece conceived in a matter of days, the scale of its reach spoke to a hunger — both for fashion with conviction and for visible, material acts of allyship.
The collaboration with Cosmetici MAC, announced in late March 2026, represents a natural amplification of that original impulse. VIVA GLAM, founded in 1994, has long operated on the same foundational principle: 100% of the selling price of every VIVA GLAM product goes directly to charitable partners worldwide. The alignment was less a business proposition than a philosophical one. MAC Global Creative Director Nicola Formichetti, a longtime advocate for LGBTQIA+ visibility, made the Conner Ives partnership his first major collaboration upon joining the brand, driven by a desire to give the “Protect the Dolls” message a larger stage.
The limited-edition collection includes a reimagined “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt in 100% organic cotton with MAC VIVA GLAM branding across the back, alongside a MACximal Silky Matte lipstick in Viva Planet — a soft pink-beige designed to complement every skin tone — housed in exclusive “Protect the Dolls” packaging. All proceeds benefit The Trevor Project and Mermaids, organizations providing crisis support and advocacy for LGBTQ+ youth in the US and the UK, respectively. The campaign was fronted by Dominique Jackson, Josephine DuPont, Ivy Stewart, and Green Kim — a cast chosen not for reach metrics but for lived truth.
Timed to coincide with Trans Day of Visibility on March 31, the collection launched online on March 29, 2026. Its arrival marks something more significant than a product drop: it is fashion and bellezza, two industries long accused of hollow symbolism, choosing sustained commitment over seasonal sentiment.
What Conner Ives understood — and what this collaboration with MAC VIVA GLAM affirms — is that the most enduring pieces in fashion history have always carried weight beyond their fabric. A T-shirt does not save lives on its own. But it can start a conversation, fund a lifeline, and remind the person wearing it that to stand for something is, in itself, a form of protection.
Immagini per gentile concessione di MAC Cosmetics
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