“There was an early version that said We <3 the Dolls,” he said, “and as true as that is, words have so much meaning today and that felt like not getting to the meat of it.” He went with “Protect the Dolls” instead. What makes it such an effective affirmation is that Ives struck a balance between a clear political message and a casual colloquialism. “Dolls” is verbiage that we (the industry, LGBTQ+ people, younger folk) use. Ives was speaking to the people in the room, but ended up making a global statement.
The idea of possibly selling the t-shirt and donating the proceeds to charity was a consideration for Ives as he was making it, but it did not materialize until he saw the impact it made after he wore it, with magazines posting about it on their social media and reporters asking him about it backstage. He opened a pre-order for the t-shirt the following morning, using only a backstage photo of him wearing it as the promotion for it on his Instagram (it remains the sole promotional post about it he’s made).
“Fashion in the 21st century has to be reactive, and you need to find a way of being able to do that,” he explains. The t-shirt he wore backstage was deadstock, but his team mobilized to produce new versions. All of the proceeds from the $99 tees (£75.00) go to Trans Lifeline, a US-based, trans-led nonprofit organization that connects trans people to the community and offers them support via a peer support and crisis hotline. Ives had originally considered other LGBTQ+ organizations, but “going directly to trans people with a trans-led organization was the most clear to me,” he says. Ives has sold 1,088 t-shirts as of Sunday, April 13. After production, shipping, and order fulfillment costs, he’s donated over $70,000. A number that continues to grow by the hour.
