The End of the Eras Era
Thoughts on the final weekend and the costumes chosen for filming
The Eras Tour has officially concluded. Since its kickoff in Glendale, AZ in March 2023, the seismic proportions of this tour have gone on to shatter every record possible. At every stage in her career, Taylor continues to set new heights. Seemingly the only artist who can topple her is herself. She enters rarefied air with ease—or at least with the appearance of it. At its end, Eras sold north of 10 million tickets worldwide and netted $2.07 billion in revenue - twice that of the second-highest grossing tour of all time, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour.
Reviews for Taylor’s final run of dates at Vancouver’s BC Place predominantly focused on the herculean efforts to bring the tour’s three hour show to its true conclusion. “Every night on the 149-concert road show felt as spectacular as any actual grand finale could and did,” said Chris Willman for Variety. “There’s no going back to the world before the Eras Tour,” said Rob Sheffield for Rolling Stone. “When the Eras tour started, Swifties didn’t know quite what to expect. When it ended, they knew they had seen history,” said Jason Lipshutz for Billboard.
But all of them also took note of the absence of “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”s call-and-response for “MORE!” from the crowd. Specifically, the strictly by-the-book procedural for this final run of shows. No doubt enforced by the presence of film equipment capturing video over the course of each of Vancouver’s three nights. “The final night in Vancouver stuck close to the script … But that didn’t mean it was boring,” read Aleesha Harris for The Vancouver Sun. “Marked by no big announcements, no guests, no gimmicks, no frills — unless, of course, you take into account that this was the frilliest tour of all time,” continued Willman in Variety. “The slick professionalism of the concert raised an intriguing paradox for anyone who walked into BC Place wondering whether the tour’s conclusion might finally be the thing to crack Swift’s determination,” described Mikael Wood for The L.A. Times.
Over the course of its run, Taylor has used the Eras Tour as her personal launchpad to announce or release new projects. Fans in select cities (and those tuning in worldwide via grainy livestream) were surprised by new music videos (“I Can See You”, “Karma”) and re-recorded album announcements (Speak Now and 1989). Many had theorized that for the tour’s grand finale, a surprise of equal grandness was all but certain.
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This is part of what makes Taylor such an enduring figure. She’s cultivated an excitement and appetite from fans, addicted to the aura of the unexpected that encircles near everything she does. She’s raised a fandom on the surprise and delight of the most minute details becoming canonical drops for new content. In doing so, she has inadvertently set off a positive reinforcement chain that these “clues” are part of a masterminded, highly niche scavenger hunt planned years in advance. The intended effect is creating ongoing investment in your every move, generating excitement and a constant demand for your art. The unintended consequence is that seemingly everything becomes a clue to be parsed and analyzed. Planned, and otherwise. Self-contained fan theories proliferate in informational vacuums and expectations get internalized that are then disappointed when there’s no follow through. This both is and isn’t Taylor’s fault. But it is very much part of the asylum that she has raised her fans in and is part of the uphill battle she pushes against with every glittering, high heeled step - that of the boulder of fan expectations and predictions she had no part in setting.
My first time seeing the revamped version of Eras was in Toronto and then in a triple header succession over the course of the final weekend in Vancouver. It had been well over a year since I’d seen Eras live (July 2023 in Seattle), but I’d of course familiarized myself with the new lay of the land post-Poets through my weekly tune-in to fan livestreams.
While I could go on and on, on and on (and I have), here were some fresh notes from me:
A lot of people talk about post-Eras amnesia but I feel we need to discuss the post-Americana emotional release more. At every show I’ve been to, I’ve found myself crying during “Cruel Summer.” I think it’s because you’re so awed by her sudden Taylor-In-The-Box pop-up appearance from billowing, curved Venus shells that it takes the entire intro of “Miss Americana” for reality to sink in. For your consciousness to catch up. For your heart to feel what your eyes are seeing. That she’s real. That she’s in front of you. That this person whose art you’ve moved the axis of your life around is about to perform her heart out for three hours and make being charming, vulnerable, beautiful, and emotive all look easy. It’s really real. Eras is here. Really something, not just the idea of something. It’s moving and it’s magical and it’s the worst thing you’ve ever heard he looks up grinning like a devil it’s NEWWWWWWW THE SHAPE OF YOUR BODYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
I still mourn the loss of “The Archer” and always will.
The Fearless set continues to be an underrated, perfectly timed, marvelously nostalgic, and choreographed bit of the show.
I found myself missing the emotional tentpole that “All Too Well” (10 Minute Version) served in the show’s first iteration when it came at the approximate halfway mark of the setlist. I’m never one to deny the way Taylor is able to collapse a stadium into the palm of her hand, cradling 60,000 people with the hushed intimacy of a theatre show as we bellow in unison - mascara tracks rivering down our faces - about the casual cruelty of the communal exes of our past. But 30 minutes into a 3 hour show feels like drinking hard liquor at 10am … just too damn early.
In person, the folkmore set doesn’t drag on the way I felt it did online.
The highlight, of course, is the section the show was adjusted around to fit. I feel it isn’t an understatement to say that not having a fully dedicated Female Rage: The Musical tour to Tortured Poets is something we’re all collectively losing out on. It’s a perfect example of Taylor going above and beyond precedent to pay service to fans. Who else but she would spend millions of dollars in rehearsal time, production, choreography, and costuming to add a significant new portion of the show when she absolutely did not need to? Tickets to Eras were already sold pre-Poets. Demand was already higher than it had ever been. She had zero incentive to add this to the show - but she did. Because that’s who she is. The “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?” performance is worth the cost of admission alone and will go down in history as a career best for its theatrics, choreography, and vocals. Although I just know I can’t be the only one who turned to the person closest to me to whisper, “There’s a man in there” when the Tayroomba appeared.
But the many-lensed elephants in the room at BC Place were the multitude of cameras present at all three nights. Set up on cranes and in aisles scattered around the stadium, on criss-crossing wires suspended in the rafters to capture aerial-like footage, on the stage itself to capture tight details, and lining the length of the catwalk. Their presence created an undercurrent of eyebrow raising. The last time a show was filmed in this nature and to this extent were the first three nights of the shows in Los Angeles, CA at SoFi Stadium in August 2023. The footage acquired then went on to become the official Eras Tour movie which hit theatres in October 2023 and broke the record for most streamed music film when it hit Disney+ in December 2023. Are we set to receive the same treatment here with an Eras Tour 2.0 film for Valentine’s Day 2025? Or does she have something else entirely (a long-awaited documentary perhaps) up her masterminding sleeve?
There is a highly privileged emotional tradeoff to attending a filmed show. In addition to maximizing number of costume variants seen in person - should that matter to you and your personal bingo card as it does for many people who attend the same show in a single city. Above and beyond, of course, the privilege of attending a show as widely demanded as Eras, period. The long-game gain is that your city is permanently etched into a canonical fandom asset, forever enshrined in high definition. It’s a fandom flex. It’s smug social media bragging rights. But in reality, what some might feel guilty in admitting is you undeniably lose a certain degree of the candid magic that can only happen during a live production. Given the endless online sizzle reels of “Errors Tour” gaffes, both fan-made and official (as seen in the Eras Tour Movie end credits), there’s a mutual degree of delight from both entertainer and fan to revel and giggle in these unscripted moments. Like everything inherent to Taylor, her brand - and the level of deep affection and connection with her audience - has authenticity and vulnerability as the core of it all. And there’s nothing more real and raw than goofing a lyric (“if you plail to plan”) or being momentarily strangled by a chiffon gown mid-stage twirl or accidentally swallowing a bug (or three). Particularly compared to the opening run of shows of this tour when Taylor admitted to feeling “really overwhelmed, and trying to keep it together all night.” We know she specifically worked towards getting to the “over-rehearsed” place she spoke of in her TIME piece last year so she “could be silly with the fans, and not lose [her] train of thought.” In order to be immortalized in film, this candour has to be sacrificed. The unguarded emotional energy to a live show needs to be buffed and polished away to something more detached and professional for wider, permanent consumption.
That minute degree of detachment was palpable in BC Place. Ironically, the pursuit of perfection left room for critique demanding just the opposite. There’s a strange, ineffable quality seemingly uniquely applied to Taylor. One that demands a higher degree of perfection than most. Perhaps more than any other pop star today. And yet the chief complaint from this trio of shows was that it was “too” perfect. A criticism that feels like we’re officially falling on the other side of the curvature on which she is already being aggressively graded.
Taylor delivered a trio of gold standard performances. Ones that require the stamina that world class athletes have expressed not envying. She did so with a patented professionalism, precisely completing the scope of work she was called to do. Yet somehow, for some, this still fell short of expectations. Perhaps because Taylor Swift’s brand is emotional excess. Perhaps because she is known for being particularly exceptional. For setting her own bar, already lofted stratospheres above her competitors, and still somehow expected to clear it. And when the tour is already monumentally exceptional the deck is inordinately stacked.
I’d make the case that ending the tour on these terms is precisely what Taylor wanted and frankly, deserved. She admitted as much herself during the show’s acoustic set saying, “We’ve had so long to prepare for the end of this tour,” before launching into a series of songs that carefully and beautifully played tribute to her arc as a performer. A girl looking for a place in this world and finding it amongst other hopeless romantics by giving us her story and the gift of a communal belief in heartbreak as our national anthem.
Taylor has done a lot with the double album drop tactic the last few years. Beginning with the pandemic sister albums folklore and evermore in 2020, followed up by the tortured two-parter of The Tortured Poets Department and its Side B The Anthology earlier this year. Correlating to this trend of more being more, many have wondered if the final two (Taylor’s Version) re-records would be dropped as a pair — dubbed ‘debutation’ by its believers. However, doing so would undoubtedly block her debut album from ever hitting #1 (it never did in its initial release in 2006 and I can’t imagine that interest in it would eclipse the fever pitch screaming for the re-recorded reputation) - something I’m sure Taylor is looking forward to adding to her checklist of accomplishments.
But I believe that every era deserves its chance to shine, even - and perhaps especially - the Eras era. This tour shifted global economies, became a cultural phenomenon, and a cornerstone of the community over its two year run. It joined fans in emotional unison in stadiums, living rooms, and movie theatres around the world. Whether you had a ticket or not, Eras offered a three hour escape hatch from reality into a glittering world of communal girlhood - fortified by friendship bracelets made on bedroom floors and traded with people who moments before were simply strangers. Didn’t it deserve its own dedicated send off? An undistilled ode to “the most exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense, challenging” feat she had ever accomplished thus far. A farewell unfettered by the demands of “what’s next”. An opportunity to let the confetti take as much time as it wanted to flutter down and blanket a stadium one last time.
When Taylor intoned that Eras was the “most thrilling chapter of [her] entire life to date,” I couldn’t help but smile, grateful for what we had and knowing - somehow - that something greater was still ahead.
And if these are the memories that Taylor wants us to hold onto, I wanted to take a look at the costume selections made that will be memorialized in whatever project she has cooking up. As I did for the costume choices made for the Eras Tour movie, let’s break down what we’ll be seeing in this next iteration of the Eras Tour canon.
Why did Taylor wear the same costumes every night in Vancouver when she has so many variants? All three nights of the Vancouver Eras Tour dates were filmed for the secret project at hand. For the sake of continuity, that meant that Taylor wore the same series of costumes each night. This provides editors three nights of footage to choose from and cut together from a maximum number of angles. The final product will make it seem like everything was captured from just one night.
Why did she choose the costumes she did? Is it possible that what Taylor picked happened to just be her favourite costume variations at the time? Perhaps. But Taylor knows better than anyone the power of fashion. The Eras Tour itself exists as a vehicle to channel the aesthetics of Eras past. Every costume has been carefully designed and planned, generally with the intent of honouring and refreshing that version of Taylor. The additional consideration of these outfits being permanently immortalized in whatever project she’s cooking up adds to the decision making process. What will translate best to different sized screens? What makes for the most logical processional of looks? What best embodies that Era while still feeling modern enough to hit with today's audiences? What will set this piece of content apart enough from the Eras Tour Movie? These are all factors that are strongly considered when it came to making costume selects for this final run of shows.
Were there any new costumes? No new costumes debuted at Vancouver.
Well, what costumes did she choose? While you might have thought Taylor would have gone with the latest version of every costume at her disposal, the final array of selects was actually a mix of versions that debuted across the Eras Tour.
Lover, Version 2: As the opening set of the Eras Tour, this is the most photographed portion of the entire show and thus the most symbolic and recognizable from the entire Eras Tour. To distinguish itself from the Eras Tour Movie (2023 Version), the blue/gold iteration of the Lover Versace bodysuit is the most worn one behind the pink/blue Version 1 that was captured for the film. If you’re into counting and statistics, the pink/blue version was worn at 35% of all Eras Shows and the blue/gold at 32%.
Fearless, Version 4: Taylor’s thesis for the Eras Tour is that she designed it intentionally for fans who may have missed out on previous tours to “feel like they’ve been here the entire time.” It’s a neat way of catching up her new cohort of fans, swept along in her tidal wave since the release of folklore, who weren’t around to participate in eras past while also giving older fans a bit of nostalgia to grab onto. This version of the Fearless dress, by Naeem Khan, is the closest copy + paste to one of her costumes on the original Fearless Tour of 2009-2010 and was an excellent allusory choice to put in this filmed project. The “then and now” slideshow opportunities are a slam dunk win.
RED, Version 4: Given how the Eras Tour has been a vehicle for reliving and reclaiming Taylor’s back catalogue, referencing the re-records project in the film with the “Taylor’s Version” option for her Ashish shirt felt appropriately cheeky and like a fourth-wall break from the present-day Taylor, slyly sneaking in part of her current personal narrative even as she revisits and cosplays as her Eras past.
Speak Now, Version 1: Getting the limelight she deserves! I theorized that Taylor had selected the tiered purple version of the many Speak Now gowns at her disposal for the Eras Tour Movie (2023) because it correlated most tightly with the then-new Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) re-record release. With a bit of distance from it, the original version by Nicole + Felicia (also worn the most by far of any of the Speak Now gowns) finally got its chance to shine (literally).
reputation, Version 2: The default choice given the other version, also by Roberto Cavalli, was used in the Eras Tour Movie (2023).
folkmore, Version 7: Despite being the latest version of the dress introduced (it debuted during Paris N2 in May), the berry version of the folkmore dress by Alberta Ferretti very quickly became a favourite for Taylor to wear. It’s actually the third-most worn version (behind Version 2, cream and Version 4, green) of the dress. While it’s more saturated than the other gowns and thus feels the most out-of-place option for me, having seen it in person I do think it pops nicely off the mossy cabin roof as well as the sunset-strewn staging during “betty” and “august”. Where I think the cream version which was used in the Eras Tour movie (2023) had the widest range for the demands of the set, including the funereal march for “my tears ricochet”, the berry version takes second place in its diverse ability to play with all the requirements of this portion of the show. It even feels haunting in its own way during “my tears ricochet” - like a bloodied figure cutting a warpath at the forefront of a ghostly set of grievers down the catwalk.
1989, Version 8: Taylor knows better than anyone the power of colour theory. Wearing this pairing - of the 36 options she had at her disposal for this particular mismatched Roberto Cavalli set - has obvious Chiefs connotations that people will be quick to notice and point out. Inserting that part of her personal, off-stage story into this Eras Tour project was yet another cheeky, present-day storytelling moment. We got further hints at this via the insertion of Travis’ signature “Archer” pose that Taylor hits before rolling into “So High School” during the Tortured Poets set and the usurping of “You’re On Your Own, Kid” for “The Alchemy” as the show’s recessional tune.
The Tortured Poets Department, Version 1: Defaulting to the first, original version of a costume where possible felt like the obvious choice to me. Although truthfully, this costume variant, by Vivienne Westwood, is the most subtle of all of them so picking between the two almost feels like it could have been a coin toss.
“I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”, Version 2: This felt like the obvious choice to me with Poets canonical ‘era’ colour being white. This was the crispest, most on-brand set - again by Vivienne Westwood - to end the performance with.
Acoustic Set, Version 9: I was relieved to see her select this ‘blurple’ variant for the surprise song set. It’s easily the least distracting and chaotic of the new Roberto Cavalli 3.0 takes on this dress and I can imagine will translate beautifully to film - especially when all the purple “Long Live” lights sparkle around her.
“Anti-Hero” dress, Version 5: One of the rare costuming choices that confused me. If the goal was to differentiate this filmed project from the official movie, I’m unclear on why she opted to recycle the iridescent sequin t-shirt dress she wore for the filmed Los Angeles shows. My only guess is that, as I previously noted, this shirt dress “is the most dynamic in that it looks like a blend of all the other ones put together so it's a good middle ground sparkle option.”
Midnights, Version 4: Not opting for the ‘moonstone’ version of this bodysuit by Zuhair Murad baffles me. Not because it’s the latest and greatest from this costume set, but because the celestial embellishments and corsetry on it are by far the most painstaking and stunning and would have made for a clear nod to the Midnights aesthetic for the screen. I’m confused by the choice instead for Taylor to opt for the “chevron” design of the bodysuit, another one also by Zuhair Murad.
“Karma” jacket, Version 2: One instance where I wouldn’t have minded a repeat from the movie. In my opinion, the tonal blue-on-blue made for a cohesive and appealing moment. But perhaps Taylor wanted to choose the most vibrant of the jackets she has to really make her final bow ‘pop’ on screen.
What did you think of the costume choices that Taylor made? What do you think was being filmed? How did you feel about the Eras Tour send off? Would love to hear your thoughts below!
I was really struck by how many fans expected there to be *something* during the last set of shows. Night 3 in Vancouver was my first & only show, and it’s the greatest concert I’ve ever attended! The entire set I just kept thinking how clear it is that she wanted to do her absolute best for every part of the show, it was like she knew that each song she was performing was someone’s favorite and wanted to give them her all. I’m a little bummed not by Taylor’s lack of gimmick or surprise, but by the fan expectations!
Sarah, you have a similar gift to Taylor in being able to conjure experiences with words! This post took me right back to my Eras show in 2023. And I’ll be right where you left me 🥹
(I also mourn the loss of The Archer and still wear a Lover Fest bracelet 😳)