CONNER IVES

CONNER IVES on making something from nothing in a world that has everything

PAPERCLIP

SUNGLASSES

Photography by DYLAN MASSARA. Words by KERRY SHAW.

What’s not to love about Conner Ives?

We know he’s serious about trans rights. And we know he’s serious about sustainability. And there’s also real intelligence behind his designs. How else could he create dresses from recycled sequins and still make them look and feel like high-end luxury – and without being overtly camp thanks to that nonchalant, languid fit he’s made his own? He can do a bias cut to rival 90s Galliano, but he doesn’t mind mixing lustrous silk dupion with recycled spandex. He once described his approach to fashion as “sexy, sustainable and silly” but we’re on to you Conner; it’s also deadly serious.

His reconstituted shirred football pieces transform mass-produced sportswear into intimate pieces that make you want to wear them for any and every occasion. They’re cool, unique and beautifully crafted. His "Protect the Dolls" T-shirt became a campaign that transcended fashion, a rallying cry at trans rights protests across the UK – even Mariah Carey created her own version of it. Yet he’s wary of fashion's tendency to hollow out activism for profit.

And he’s sincere too. Humble even. He's unusually transparent about financial precarity and scale, refusing to chase growth for growth's sake. Limitations aren’t obstacles, they’re the thing that makes his work human, relatable and so much more desirable.

We visited Conner in his London studio (that’s also his home), curious to discover how he manages to operate on his own terms in a system that doesn’t really share his values.

KERRY SHAW Thanks for having us into your home and studio today. You live and work in the same building, with Max [Buntrock, Ives's partner] and Rex [their wire fox terrier] woven into the day. What does that closeness between life and labour give you, and what does it take away?

CONNER IVES I always take it as a reminder how this job rarely feels like labour. Sure, it has its tough moments, but I feel like I've created a safety net around me that shields me from that up and down; also as a reminder of what’s important.

I’m a real homebody, and it’s nice to feel close to a space that provides such solace.

KS Your studio feels grounded in a way that mirrors the brand. It’s calm, human and genuinely kind. In an industry that often rewards hardness and ego, is it difficult to stay nice, and if so, what advice would you give fashion about how to do it better?

CI I guess it’s a reflection of my mentors and my heroes. So many people I look up to have gained success in such a respectful way. It’s one thing to be a good designer, but it’s an entirely different thing to be respected and valued by your peers. I’ve always strived for both, as I see both as equally important. I have my moments, we all do! But it’s good to keep context. In the grand scheme of my life, getting upset over a crooked “h” is only going to torment me.

KS Protect the Dolls moved very quickly from garment to rallying symbol. At what point did you realise it no longer belonged to you?

CI I remember last summer watching the protests and marches opposing the UK’s staunch alienation of trans people through their policies and seeing it written on posters, T-shirts, and etc. That same week Mariah Carey wore a varsity jacket with the back of it rhinestoned with the same phrase in the same font. We had nothing to do with that, but it was spectacular to see it adopted in the way it was. My boyfriend always says that if I didn’t do fashion I would be an ad man or something. I'm in total awe of good copyright, especially when it’s successful in the way this campaign has been; furthermore, when it’s copyright used for good.

KS Do you worry that fashion’s appetite for activism eventually neutralises the urgency it claims to support?

CI This was the main reason I was always reluctant to ever align myself with a political message. Not out of fear, but more so from a distrust of fashion’s ability to adapt a political message for personal gain. Advocacy by fashion brands can sometimes feel empty, trite. Making a T-shirt to raise awareness for climate change, donating 15% of proceeds to an NGO and then profiting off of the sale of a tee made from virgin cotton. That's never been our MO, and that fear really steered how we did this fundraiser. All profits go to charity and we only make as many as we think we can sell. When we started it we did it as a preorder as I was so scared of taking on excess stock. It’s an issue we no longer have due to the success of the tee.

KS Your work often feels emotionally direct rather than ironic. How do you protect sincerity in an industry that rewards detachment?

CI I’ve always struggled with this. I struggle to think of Conner Ives as an entity outside of me just existing. Conner Ives Ltd is as much me as Conner Ives the person is. It does take a lot of energy to protect myself from bad actors, but

I have a really loyal, tight circle. I have to give a lot of credit to my boyfriend, Max. He’s my image director but oftentimes feels like my mirror. We’ve been doing this now together for about three to four years, so any idea I have gets run by him. He's my guinea pig where I guess I can kind of assess reactions. He’s also good to push back when he feels he has to. Being surrounded by yes people is very dangerous in fashion.

KS You treat sustainability less as innovation and more as a limit you work inside. What does working with less allow you to say that abundance does not?

CI In a world where anything feels possible – further, that feels like everyone around you is ultimately doing the same thing – I see the limitations of my work as the challenge, and what makes us different. It speaks a lot to what got me interested in design in the first place. When I was a kid I was trying to make things from everything around me. Gluing together paperclips into sunglasses (seriously), dresses draped on myself from blankets, etc. There's something innately human about it, novel and somewhat humorous. I love approaching my work that way, and I love seeing the through line from when I was a kid to now. It’s cheesy, but I’m always trying to work from that same starting point, to do the version of myself justice.

KS Fashion thrives on speed, excess and novelty. Your work resists all three. Is that refusal, survival or simply realism?

CI I think it’s all three! I’ve always been stubborn. I think my personality type is the debater, which says a lot about me. Any kind of limitations, I always go in the opposite direction, I was terrible in school cause I hated the authority of a tutor telling me what to do in my personal practice. I only work this way because I do think it’s real, and it quells my aversion to working in design in the first place, making clothes for a world that already has so many clothes.

KS Looking forward, do you hope your work is remembered as protest, archive, or evidence of how people tried to care inside a failing system?

CI I would take all three! I’ve always said I do this cause I would love to inspire more people that working in this way is possible, and it is scalable. For so long in the early part of my career I was basically told how insane I was, how I would never be successful working this way; that a customer wouldn’t care. I think what we’ve done is testament to all of those things being fake, and I give that credit to myself for not believing those people! Fashion is ruthless, and I could never imagine myself doing anything else.

In a world that’s drowning in clothes, Connor’s pretty confident his success won’t be a flash in the pan. He’s moved up to doing two collections a year, he’s got his winnings from the BFC/Vogue fund behind him, and he’s got the intellect as well as the imagination to keep making a difference with values intact.

Oh to be one of his swans.