The Lay Of the Luxury Land
Breaking down Taylor’s history and relationships with designer brands
The air fizzes like uncorked champagne. The mood is celebratory. Even amidst thousands of bodies cramming for space, eager to bask in victory, they only have eyes for each other. Slow, steadying breaths like streams of steam from a boiling kettle - long and lasting enough to disturb the confetti that continues to gently fall.
No, wait. That’s not right.
Yes, them.
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I should have been able to focus on the “Love Story” of it all. But I couldn’t help but feel distracted by those gloves. They were hard to miss, centered prominently in photos taken from every angle for an on-field celebratory smooch. The logo across the back of Taylor’s hand courtesy of her Louis Vuitton gloves felt out of place. Like a logo-out can of Diet Coke inserted surreptitiously into a music video or film.
The image felt particularly stark because of its direct contrast to the same event exactly a year prior when the Chiefs won the 2024 AFC Championship. Styling of this nature, like much of what Taylor does, is intentional and carefully thought of. An on-field celebratory closeup was a possibility and thus planned for accordingly — down to the last detail of her ensemble. Then, she was styled not with impersonal French luxury logos but with items of personal significance and meaning. A $14 ring from a local Kansas City business that boasted a miniature ‘87’ jersey. A $44 Chiefs dog tag necklace from a female-founded company. Even pricey items with three or four digit price tags were imbued with meaning. Like a garnet ring in burning Chiefs red. Or a pinky ring set with a marquise diamond - most likely for how its silhouette resembles a football. Or a gifted custom tennis bracelet from another female-founded brand that carried a special set of initials — TnT.
The above is just one example of the power of fashion to tell a story.
A large part of Taylor Swift’s appeal, and - indeed - her market construct is her ability to monetize the personal and the intimate. The two tools - art forms, really - that she wields most effectively to both tell and sell her story is how it sounds (her lyrics) and how it looks (her fashion). Through both, she builds bridges across emotional islands. Often of experiences inherent to girlhood, then womanhood. Intensely personal feelings as documented in her music are then given an equally accessible and replicable package in her clothes. For every song about an unrequited crush or a broken heart, there is a conveniently priced Free People floral top or flirty athleisure “imgonnagetyouback” lilac short skirt to go with it. Because relatability is at the core of everything she does.
So as Taylor continues to ascend to New Heights (pun intended) of popularity, and she lives out the cinematic dream of her high school years by, in fact, dating a guy on the football team (and inadvertently boosting NFL advertising equivalents worth $1 billion) - wearing an outfit worth $65,320 to boot - how do we trace how we got here? Taylor’s music excels at making the personal feel communal, regardless of the perceived largeness of her life. Her music and style have worked in tandem for so long to effectively communicate her story. In turn, how do you continue packaging yourself as approachable, relatable, and accessible when your mere presence nets 5% of a $20 billion franchise?
One area I’ve been asked about a lot recently is in regards to Taylor’s fashion and luxury brands. Brands that are beyond the reach of most of her fan base who have been trained to see themselves, to some degree, in the visual and musical world of their favourite artist. Some cite Travis Kelce’s influence - a man known to love a designer going out top. Others say it’s “about time” that Taylor began dressing proportionate to her celebrity. I asked Sarah Shapiro, retail correspondent for Puck’s Line Sheet, about the purported increase in designer wares. She told me she didn’t think an undisclosed brand partnership was a likely reason for the luxury labels. “Unlike other celebs who jump into fashion deals for the paycheque or wear designer clothes to get a brand’s attention, [Taylor] can be purely herself, or as purely herself as a global mega pop star can ever be in public,” she said. Adding, “She’s doing all this because she can, of course, and because it’s fun, but it’s also a reflection of her new life stage.” Sarah was even hesitant to pin the blame on the WAG (wives and girlfriends of athletes) factor as this has historically had its own fashion signatures. “Stadium looks [for WAGS is] certainly its own thing. There are examples of designer looks and logomania but not a lot. It seems to often be more Revolve fashion looks and jeans,” she observed.
In this regard, I can get behind a luxury look. Fashion, inherently, is a method of self-expression. It mirrors — or at least projects — an image that we want others to see. If we want others to see a growing confidence, fun, and sureness in deserving to take up space both physically and symbolically through the price tag of our clothes - then I am here for such exorbitant displays.
But we can’t point to a cause if the circumstance doesn’t exist.
In documenting Taylor’s fashion item by item for over 13 years, I’ve understood how easily we can lose the folklore forest for the trees. When I wrote my book, Taylor Swift Style, I had the benefit of taking an “Out Of the Woods” approach to her fashion. Writing about each era as cohesive wholes allowed me to take a step back and assess her timeline at large. My eyes — trained to be laser focused on details item by item in order to discern a brand’s house codes in a certain hemline or fabrication for posting outfits on the fly — relaxed to permit the entire work of art to come into focus. Like much in life, clarity crystallizes in the moments you steady yourself to breathe, step away, unclench. With a loosened gaze, I could cast over an entire horizon rather than on the minutest of details. Patterns and motifs surfaced. A story told through intentional, careful repetition would unravel.
So before answering, “Why is Taylor wearing so much luxury lately?”. The better question to ask is, “Is Taylor actually wearing more luxury lately?” And the best question to ask is, “Are we in the clear yet?”
Good.
To answer this question (and make a spreadsheet in the process) I used the extensive Taylor Swift Style archive to break down all of Taylor’s street style outfits from 2014 to 2024. Using my wealth of posts, I created a “high street” and “designer” brand split to see if the average differential between the two categories per outfit changed at all over the course of a decade. To keep these numbers in check, they are also contextualized against the number of appearances she made in that calendar year.
I defined the two categories as:
Designer: Luxury, high end fashion houses with wares typically priced beyond what most can consider accessible. The types who put out runway collections or have a higher earning clientele. Examples: Christian Louboutin, Prada, Stella McCartney, The Row.
High Street: Retailers who cater to the wide, everyday market. Stores most people can simply walk into off the street and purchase items from. Examples: Urban Outfitters, Reformation, Brandy Melville, Free People.
The one thing that’s irrefutable is that Taylor has always worn (or carried) designer brands. One of Taylor’s longstanding style pillars is the high/low. She’s always been able to toe the line between accessible and aspirational by mixing pieces from a variety of retailers. A $1,000 pair of Prada loafers with a $150 Hill House skirt, for instance. But the degree to which she’s opted to throw fans a high street priced bone may be why we’re noticing the luxury (which has always been present) that much more.
My main findings?
📈 Designer Brands Peaked in 2024: 70% of Taylor’s street style outfits in 2024 were from designer brands - an all time peak over the course of a decade in fashion documentation.
💸 High/Low Is Still A Pillar: Across a decade, a typical Taylor street style outfit is, on average, comprised of 53% designer and 47% high street brands.
📉 An Athletic Low in 2016: The lowest proportion of designer brands was in 2016. Mainly because most of Taylor’s street style outings at this time were in athleisure ‘fits seen leaving the gym. We can thank lulu and Alo for keeping things lowlow this particular year.
With that, Taylor is indeed wearing more designer than ever before. But high street pieces have far from disappeared from her wardrobe entirely.
Taylor’s previous style strategy was not unlike that of the “threshold point where most women naturally graduate from contemporary to luxury fashion” as Sarah Shapiro put it. Indeed, the majority of her luxury pieces in her mid-20s were typically in what I would call “investment” categories — outerwear, bags, and shoes. The product verticals an average person is most likely to consider as one of three things. Financial investments (items that hold their value for future resale), utility investments (versatile repeats to net a low cost per wear), or emotional investments (sentimental pieces you hold on to and perhaps pass down to future generations). The Wall Street Journal reported that many women now have a “hybrid rationale” to investing in their wardrobes. “Although fashion investments have historically fallen into the [emotional] category, they’re now entering the [financial category], too. Buy it today because you love it and want to wear it, but be comforted by the idea that your wardrobe has value,” Rory Satran reported.
Where the increase appears to come from is designer labels seeping into the other categories of her wardrobe in addition to occupying those aforementioned “investment” categories. A knit from Brandy Melville or Aritzia for one by Vivienne Westwood or The Row. A party frock from Reformation replaced by Simkhai or Balmain. Even still, her high street pieces in the last year have come from incredibly relatable places. Like at last year’s Coachella when she proved she’s not immune to the spiral down the TikTok shop when she wore a skort that was already a popular seller on the app.
With 2024's peak in mind, what will this mean for Taylor’s street style moving forward in 2025? Her current batting average for the year — based on a sparse three outings, mind you — is 83% designer. With so few outings at this current juncture that could change. But it’s certainly possible her end of year designer average might be her highest (and priciest) yet.
As noted, there could be a number of reasons for her veering towards luxury. Because she can. Because it’s fun. As a fashion watcher (and lover) whose primary purpose is documenting her fashion, I derive pleasure from watching Taylor’s style story unfold — whether that be designer or high street. To be clear, each have their place and their purpose. Each are fun to observe in their own right. Though it’s undeniable that the power of fashion is such that it speaks on your behalf even in the absence of words. Choices, and context, matter.
I can, however, empathize with fans for whom Taylor’s longstanding penchant for high street pieces they can purchase for themselves has represented a physical gateway to emulate — and relate — to an area of her art. Out in the world, a Taylor exact functions like a more subtle display of fandom. Merchandise spells your loyalty out for you. But these pieces work like a secret, sartorial message for those in the know to find one another. Said in another way, it’s just one more example of how Taylor’s art creates a sense of community for her fans. In the same way relating to the same song might foster a fast emotional connection.
But before we get ahead of ourselves for where Taylor’s fashion might go in 2025, a trip down memory lane is in order. Here are some of my personal memorable high/lows over the course of the last decade.
September 8, 2024: In my opinion, one of the most enduring examples of Taylor’s “signature” style. This outfit, to me, is instantly recognizable as Taylor!core. Not least of which because her aptitude for the high/low is on display. Dark sunnies + printed mini dress + brown leather equestrian-ish accessories is a formula I’ve seen her wear in 2010 and 2012 and 2014 and here in 2024.
September 30, 2023: I’ll admit that it will always give me a certain thrill to see Taylor in Aritzia — a brand founded in my hometown of Vancouver, Canada. An LBD is a classic wardrobe staple, one that Taylor dressed up here with a designer bag and jewelry.
July 18, 2018: A mismatched denim on denim look once again elevated by some designer accessories. Taylor was photographed every day this week in New York City ahead of her sold out dates at nearby MetLife Stadium on the reputation Tour. Fun fact about those Ksubi shorts? We’d eventually see them at Taylor’s first ever Chiefs game five years later in September 2023.
April 7, 2016: This outfit feels aggressively of its time (compliment). The skinny, distressed jeans are the biggest tell. This look was also well coordinated for the circumstances, the Saint Laurent bag a nod to the fact that she was about to go shopping at the Saint Laurent store in Beverly Hills, CA. I can recall being obsessed with this outfit — very much a copy + paste for me! In fact at the time my caption said, “With each passing day, I grow more and more confident that TS6 fashion is going to kill me dead. I would personally wear every single piece of this outfit in a heartbeat.”
April 18, 2015: Given this is an editor’s list, I naturally had to include a gree(eeeeeeee)n moment. This is a look that I knew had to make it into Taylor Swift Style (pg. 201 - in case you’d like a reference) as it’s still one of my enduring favourites. That bag! I still lust for it.
January 21, 2014: This is still, over a decade(?!), later an all-timer for me. The all black + pop of red is a classic combo. I’d wear this today.
August 12, 2014: I have a lot of fond memories from this particular outing as it was one of the earliest instances of my exclusive reporting for Taylor Swift Style. At the time, Taylor’s adorable floral striped set was from an unreleased Divided collection by H&M - news I had the pleasure of breaking on the blog. I also just loved the juxtaposition of her wearing a sweet set from an affordable brand with shoes that were fresh off the Resort 2015 runway for Elie Saab.
October 3, 2014: I, of course, couldn’t not include the high/low from the night I met Taylor at the 1989 Secret Sessions. (She asked me if I knew who she was wearing this evening. The only answer? Natch!)
Do you have any favourite Taylor high/lows?
This might be a dumb question (spoiler: it is) but when talking about designer vs high street, is there a bra version? Like are our fav celebs wearing some luxurious bra we’ve never heard of or are they “going low” with Victoria’s Secret, Honeylove and anything-but-Skims?
Excellently done Sarah. I think it’s fun seeing her flaunt her wealth more with her more luxury looks (is every single one a win? Debatable) And the boyfriend theory is very much true with Travis still and anyone who says otherwise DENILE IS A RIVER IN EGYPT. I think his love of loud luxury is rubbing off on her. It’s no different than people in everyday normal life. My style often reflects the people I love because I’m basically a mosaic of all my favourite people. She’s a billionaire. I’m honestly shocked it took so long for her to start showing it off more with her wardrobe. As always thank you for your thoughtful commentary/writing 🥰