JANE TIPPETT: What Taylor Swift’s tacky Super Bowl fashion stunt reveals about the future Mrs Kelce… and why it’ll leave her Swifties deeply dismayed
For a not insignificant portion of those tuning in to last night’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles the evening’s most showstopping moment came before play had even started.
Even the presence of the 47th president of the United States could not diminish fans’ anticipation of the arrival of Taylor Swift.
Clad in an Yves Saint Laurent oversize white tuxedo jacket and thigh high white leather boots she strode through the stadium towards her front row VIP seat.
Joined by besties Ice Spice and Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, Swift promptly removed the ill-fitting coat to reveal an ensemble of even more staggering bad taste – white Alaia body suit and thigh skimming sequin studded denim shorts, whose glitzy hues echoed in the large ruby cross pendant which hung around her neck.
Though she was clearly shocked at being booed by Eagles fans, their reception couldn’t take away from a moment, that underscored 35-year-old Swift’s singular status as NFL’s most watched fan.
Since September 2023 when the ‘Love Story’ singer made her debut in the champion’s suite sporting a not so subtle homage to her new beau – a white tank top, Chiefs jacket, red mani and her signature red lips, the Chief’s signatures – Swift has become a fixture on the NFL circuit.
Turning game day into a parade for the paps she quite literally wears her romance with both American football and Kelce, 35, on her sleeve.
From her embrace of the flashy Louis Vuitton streetwear that is Kelce’s trademark style – to the dangling ruby ‘T’ from her sequined Vivienne Westwood burlesque-style corset dress at the Grammy’s this past weekend – Swift has left no one in doubt that she is all in for ‘Team Travis’.
After a more than two decade long-music career and an amassed fortune of an estimated $1.6 billion, Swift is as famous for her music as she is for the parade of men who have come and gone in the life of arguably one of the world’s most famous women.
Yet her decision to embrace the role of the Chief’s number one cheerleader is a notable break from past precedent.
Her long-standing refusal to parade her romances on the red carpet seemed to many a calculated step in preserving their mystique in anticipation of the moment when she could conspicuously memorialize their end in her chart-topping songs.
Clothes became the best barometer of the continuity or strength of a particular romance as Swift’s style responded to and reflected the man on her arm rather than the woman within.
Unlike similar female music idols – Madonna or J Lo – who appear to own the multitude of their various incarnations and never seem adjuncts to the men in their lives, Swift’s identity fluctuates and pivots not according to her own theatrical trajectory but according to her romantic pairing of the moment.
From Rock ‘N’ Roll glam with British singer turned music producer Matt Healey to preppy chic with Conor Kennedy (she even purchased a house in Hyannis port near the famed family’s holiday compound) and much more besides, Swift seems acutely conscious of occupying the girlfriend persona.
