Discover Conner Ives, the savvy designer who’s channeling sustainability with a cool, all-American vibe
At the tender age of 23, CONNER IVES has already founded his eponymous fashion house, dressed Adwoa Aboah for the Met Gala and worked with Rihanna. Now, as he launches on NET-A-PORTER, the New York-born designer tells GRACE COOK about his repurposed, planet-friendly clothing – and the importance of staying true to oneself
Conner Ives has had a start in fashion most young designers would dream of. At just 23, the New York-born Ives had established his namesake label, enjoyed a stint working under Rihanna at Fenty and dressed Adwoa Aboah for the Met Gala – all while he was still an undergraduate at Central Saint Martins. “It’s been kind of crazy,” he says, speaking from his studio in east London. “I’m very lucky to have such momentum behind me already.”
It’s clear from speaking to Ives, however, that such early success is less a result of luck and more down to his steadfast self-belief and razor-sharp vision. From the age of 16, he was already interning with acclaimed designers, including Wes Gordon and Jonathan Anderson. At 18, during his foundation year at CSM, he was rejected from the bachelor’s degree program for womenswear – but rather than change tact, he became more committed to his vision of fashion than ever. “I felt like I was almost trying to defend myself… after that first year, I thought, ‘I never want a person to question my intentions again.’ I hunkered down and decided to never let anyone doubt what I was attempting to do here.”
“What makes the brand unique is the composition of each piece; the enigmatic combination of the fabrics… Every dress is one of a kind
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His aim? To establish a label with sustainability built into its core. Today, Ives uses vintage garments hand-sourced from a warehouse in Sheffield, in northern England, chops them up and reimagines them into new pieces. He has swiftly become renowned for his contrasting panel dresses, which have been worn by Rihanna and are crafted from four or more repurposed T-shirts – his aesthetic meshes collegiate prep and sports with a sexier mood that telegraphs an air of modern, nostalgic Americana. His debut collection, titled The American Dream, is set to launch this month. “Each T-shirt is put together by me,” he says. “What makes the brand unique is the composition of each piece; the enigmatic combination of the fabrics… that attention to detail and handmade aspect is something you don’t get outside of a Parisian couture house. Every dress is one of a kind.”
It’s a meticulous process. Ives and his 10-person team pore over each piece of vintage clothing for quality control once they have arrived in his studio. The colorful sports tops are then sorted by size, sliced up into four to eight parts and then organized into unique designs and sewn together. The idea of using materials readily available came to him while he was an intern, and luxury houses were getting rid of rolls of unused fabrics that “would have ended up in a dumpster” unless he’d taken them. “It was crazy to me that it would just be classed as a business loss. From that moment on, I just thought, ‘I’m going to do this differently.’”
Ives thinks the runaway success he’s currently enjoying owes a lot to timing. “Lockdown taught us a lot of things; there was a reckoning with sustainability,” he says. “It’s fashion’s hottest trend right now, but it’s such a vague word that it can mean anything. Brands can use cardboard packaging instead of plastic, but if the clothes themselves are made from plastic, it’s not that sustainable. I wanted my launch to be a fully formed concept of what I wanted to stand for. It was the perfect storm that welcomed me into the industry.”
“I was presenting my sketches directly to Rihanna at the age of 22… And she was always so animated and responsive. The way that I was treated by her is how I want to treat my team now
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He also wanted his debut collection to explore ideas of America – both in terms of his identity as a designer and to confront the tension of “what it meant to be American in 2020,” he says. As the US grappled with the pandemic, it was also facing a political and racial reckoning. “Living in London, I saw America from the outside and it was a whole different perspective that I never had before,” he says. “I titled the collection The American Dream to have this confrontation with my upbringing of being an American, and a white male American. What does the concept of the American dream stand for anymore? It’s almost propaganda, designed to promote upward mobility,” he says. “But upward mobility only exists if you’re already in the right circles. We like to think of ourselves as a shining, glittering nation, built on freedom. But we’re also a nation built on slavery.”
Ives says his experience working with Rihanna at Fenty also impressed on him the importance of diversity and democracy within a label – he wants to turn that experience into a blueprint for managing his own brand. “I’ve had some incredible bosses, but I’ve never before worked with a person who knew the name of every single person in the room,” he says. He was employed by Rihanna after she saw the white tuxedo dress he made for Aboah at the Met Gala in 2017. “I was presenting my sketches directly to her at the age of 22… in a room full of people [who were] my seniors. And she was always so animated and responsive.” Her faith in him, as a student, instilled the values of respecting young talent and team members in him. “The way that I was treated by her in that position is how I want to treat my team now.”
Today, he’s enjoying the wave of success he’s currently riding. But he has a long-term strategy to build out his brand into a full concept, harking back to the glory days of American fashion – he says his inspirations are Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren. Eventually, he wants to move the brand back to the US. “I really admire the American lifestyle designer, but in 2021 that’s sort of a bygone concept,” he says. “But the way they created worlds is so desirable. There’s so much potential to sell that dream, but in a responsible and ethical way.”