The real star of Coachella was this T-shirt

Last February, at London Fashion Week, American designer Conner Ives wanted to pay tribute to the trans community with a T-shirt. It was a simple, impulsive gesture, the designer told the New York Times, since it was made the night before the show with a white T-shirt and a heat transfer sheet. Ever since Ives appeared on the runway at the end of the show wearing the Protect the Dolls shirt, everyone on social media, in DMs and emails to Conner Ives, was asking where to buy it. Sold for 99 dollars, it started traveling the world with the support of celebrities and designer colleagues like Pedro Pascal and Haider Ackermann. So far, sales of the item have raised over $70,000 to be donated to Trans Lifeline, a nonprofit and emergency hotline for the trans community. Now that the T-shirt's popularity has reached Coachella, the world’s most followed festival both for its artist lineup and the style of its attendees, Conner Ives' team can no longer keep up with orders.

With Protect the Dolls, Conner Ives makes a direct reference to the trans community, which in this historical moment — in America as well as the UK — has a deep need for support. The word dolls originates from ball culture, an LGBTQIA+ subculture born in the U.S. in the 1960s that organized (and still organizes) dance competitions to celebrate identity. «I was raised and supported by incredible and wonderful women. I wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for the ‘dolls’,» the designer told Dazed. By appearing at the end of the runway with the T-shirt, Ives created a domino effect, culminating just over the past weekends at Coachella. From Addison Rae to Troye Sivan — who wore it on stage during his performance with Charli xcx — the piece is making its way through the desert and the internet.

2025 marks a particularly difficult year for the trans communities in the U.S. and the U.K. One of the first laws instituted by Donald Trump at the start of his new presidential term requires the government to recognize only «two sexes, male and female,» which, according to the order, «are not subject to change.» Because of this, starting in January, the State Department has stopped processing passport applications that request the “X” gender marker — a piece of news that sparked outrage on social media thanks to Hunter Schafer, a transgender actress who sued the government for changing her gender on her passport. According to Trump’s new law, «the issuance of U.S. passports by the Department will reflect the individual’s biological sex as defined in the executive order,» while in the U.K. last week, a new Supreme Court order ruled that a woman is defined by her «biological sex» — a ruling that could have serious implications for the trans community.

In such a complex time for the LGBTQIA+ communities, who after years of struggle are seeing their rights torn away, projects like Protect the Dolls show that fashion can still be political. At Coachella — a festival that, although it features liberal voices like artists Charli xcx and Troye Sivan, is funded by a billionaire who also supports extremely conservative organizations — a T-shirt can still make a difference. «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,» the designer told Vogue. «Let alone a trans girl in the middle of America under an administration that’s basically telling her that she doesn’t exist.» The T-shirt is still available for pre-order on the Conner Ives website.