Nothing is unintentional when it comes to Taylor Swift.
From her carefully crafted lyrics to her oh-so cryptic album titles, everything is imbued with meaning in the Swiftosphere.
So when she stepped out in New York on Saturday, the day after signing the most meaningful deal of her life, you’d better believe she had something to say.
And it was written all over her outfit – ‘Life is Gucci.’
Just twenty-four hours earlier, Swift shelled out a reported $360million to buy back the master recordings of her first six studio albums.
She maintains they were bought without her knowledge in 2019 by music producer and former Justin Bieber manager, Scooter Braun.
Taylor Swift opted to wear a $55,000 ensemble to a night out celebrating being able to buy back her masters
Braun sold them to private equity firm Shamrock Capital the following year.
Had it not been for Swift’s defiant bid to reclaim the music she had written – re-recording and re-releasing all the ‘lost’ albums as ‘Taylor’s Versions’ – the Eras Tour would never have happened.
Well, what a difference a world tour makes.
Swift has already credited her fans and the $2billion they spent on ticket sales for enabling her to ‘reunite…with this art that I have dedicated my life to’.
‘The best things,’ she added, ‘that have ever been mine finally actually are.’ She accompanied her words on Instagram with a picture of herself in which she clutched her album covers and announced their acquisition.
Hours later, Swift emerged in New York. She swapped low-key ‘gratitude’ – the jeans and sweater she wore in her online post – for the head-to-toe triumph of the Italian fashion house which she has repeatedly favored for her most luxe red-carpet moments.
She stepped out with fellow female titan Selena Gomez. Eagle-eyed fans have been quick to note that each earring consists of 12 diamonds – an apparent allusion to the fact that Swift is currently working on TS12, her twelfth studio album
The singer mixed disco glam with Upper East Side bling, topping off head-to-toe Gucci with a dazzling pair of $36,000 DeBeers ‘Arpeggia’ diamond earrings
Mixing disco glam with Upper East Side bling, Swift wore a black crepe crystal trimmed tank and matching mini, boldly paired with a towering silver leather Gucci platform sandal, whose exaggerated shape was the perfect foil to the simple lines of her thigh-skimming silhouette.
She married the look with a black Bamboo 1947 handle bag and her $36,000 DeBeers ‘Arpeggia’ diamond earrings, which in a nod to the budget were in fact a ‘re-wear’.
Eagle-eyed fans have been quick to note that each earring consists of 12 diamonds – an apparent allusion to the fact that Swift is currently working on TS12, her twelfth studio album.
The singer styled her hair in soft waves and finished the look with her signature bold red lip.
With a price tag of over $55,000 the whole ensemble marked a departure from the downtown boho chic that has dominated Taylor’s New York City style of late.
The few times she has been spotted recently she’s opted for soft florals and calf-skimming dresses.
The polished look was a departure from the downtown boho chic that has dominated Taylor’s New York City style previously. Pictured: Swift in Brooklyn in January last year
Here instead was a radical update of the crop top and coordinating skater skirt look that was a hallmark of the singer’s early style – most notably during her 1989 tour, one of the six rescued recordings.
This was a bigger, better, frankly more expensive, version of that ingenue self who recorded all those reclaimed albums first time round.
Both the look and the location for her Manhattan night out – midtown’s Monkey Bar, a favored spot for male power dinners complete with expense-account bruising $40 martinis – were a perfect match for the moment.
As was Swift’s decision to celebrate her freshly minted creative autonomy not with her current arm candy, Kansas City Chief’s tight end, Travis Kelce (though she was wearing the $6,875 diamond tennis bracelet he had gifted her), but with a fellow female titan Selena Gomez.
The women met back in 2008 when both were better known for the men they were dating – Swift was with Joe Jonas, Gomez with his brother Nick – than any achievement of their own.
Notably absent from the celebrations was former best friend Blake Lively, who is reportedly desperately trying to woo Swift back after dragging her into her legal battle with Justin Baldoni
Now Gomez has a fortune estimated at $1.3billion thanks to her music career and beauty brand, Rare Beauty.
Swift is worth a cool $1.6billion and with last week’s deal, has just consolidated her status as one of the most influential female musical artists of the last fifty years.
It’s a coup she made sure she celebrated in style.
