“I bet they’re going to the show,” my daughter said, nodding in the direction of three women walking through Stockholm’s Gamla Stan wearing head-to-toe sequins in the middle of the afternoon. Oh, were they ever – and so were we. A few hours earlier, we’d arrived in Swiftholm, as it was renamed for the weekend, for the first night of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Sweden. And everywhere we looked, we saw Swifties.
We knew them by their tiered dresses and Western boots. By their sequin mini skirts and song-title T-shirts. By their beaded leotards, their snakes, their tinsel jackets, their capes, their Miss Americana sashes, and especially – especially – by their armloads of friendship bracelets, all of which have become mainstays of the Eras Tour style.
Because when it comes to a Taylor Swift show, planning outfits and dressing up is half the fun. When Swift takes the stage in Edinburgh this weekend, and in Liverpool, Cardiff, London and Dublin shortly after, she’ll perform to tens of thousands of fans dressed, to some degree, as herself.
For women escorting Swiftie daughters or granddaughters to the shows, discovering that their tickets carry an unspoken expectation to dress up can come as a surprise. “She keeps asking, ‘What are you going to wear?’” says fashion editor and author Erica Davies, who’s taking her 12-year-old daughter Lila to one of the London shows. “Which has been quite stressful because I wasn’t aware I was going to be part of the equation. But everyone has to get involved.”
To be clear, the Eras Tour doesn’t have a specified dress code – just an understanding that attendees will dress in the spirit of the event. This can be as simple as throwing on a T-shirt or as involved as commissioning a custom replica of one of Swift’s stage looks.
Extra respect flows to anyone who invests time and effort in crafting a unique look. In Stockholm, a superfan who embroidered a red serpent across the back and over the shoulder of his black blazer for a Reputation-themed look earned plenty of oohs and aahs. Ditto the woman who, when complimented on her hooded, floor-length green velvet cape (Folklore!), said, “Thanks, I made it.”
Not that you need to spend your nights from now until the concert hunched over a sewing machine. Swifties tend to be friendly, affirming people: no matter what you wear, someone will tell you that you look amazing.
But you do have to make an effort. Or rather, somebody does. “My daughter has planned out every element of my outfit, and hers,” says Natalie Sanders, the founder of Pickles & Bakes, which offers a limited-edition Swiftie-themed biscuit colouring set. She’s taking her 10-year-old daughter, who has loaned Sanders her “A lot going on at the moment” T-shirt (a reference to the 22 video). She also plans to wear a sparkly bomber jacket and glittery makeup.
“It’s my daughter’s first concert, so I’m going along with it and doing everything I can to make the experience as extra-special as possible. But I think I’d be into it anyway – if you’re going, you’ve got to go all-in,” she says.
Davies, who produced an Instagram Reel full of styling suggestions for Swiftie chaperones, says that while her daughter is going for a Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince vibe (pink dress from Vinted; pageant sash), she’s gravitated towards the visuals from another album. “I’m feeling much more Midnights, so I’ve got a navy-blue skirt and waistcoat, navy Merit eyeshadow and silver cowboy boots.”
Olivia Rubin has made a more personal selection. In 2019, the designer received an email from Swift’s stylist’s assistant requesting a striped sequin mini dress for consideration for upcoming appearances. She sent the dress but Swift never wore it. Now Rubin has reissued the design, this time made with sustainable sequins, and renamed it the Taylor dress. She plans to wear it to see the superstar in London later this month. “Maybe wearing this dress as my Eras Tour outfit will manifest her wearing one of my pieces in the future,” she says.
Another approach is to wear pieces Swift also owns. She wears Tilly Sveaas’s T-bar necklace all the time (it’s thought to be a gift from Travis Kelce), and is a repeat Hill House Home customer. “The power of Taylor Swift is real,” the founder and chief executive, Nell Diamond, told me at the brand’s recent collection launch at Liberty. “Every time she wears something from Hill House, it increases our site traffic significantly, and the piece she wears inevitably sells out.”
Diamond went to one of the Paris concerts, wearing a silver chainmail mini skirt, a pink feathered bolero and towering silver platform wedges. “I knew I was going to love it, but I don’t think I understood how much it was going to feel like a party. You don’t have to have a Swiftie PhD. Everybody knows the words to some Taylor Swift songs, and the energy is just electric. It was so well done and so fun.”
From the moment I surprised my daughter with Eras Tour tickets for her 10th birthday in January, we began discussing what to wear. She was clear that she wanted us to coordinate. Since she was drawn to the dreamy pastel colour palette of the Lover album, I found her a lilac ombre sequin bomber jacket (£42, Monsoon) to wear with her pink denim shorts (£14, Marks & Spencer) and a white T-shirt. I’d been playing around with a few options in the weeks leading up to the show, planning to style pieces I already had in my wardrobe – but the day before we flew, I discovered the perfect lilac sequin mini dress at Zara (£49.99, Zara). Bingo.
Sequin mini dress, £49.99, Zara
Let’s say you’re less into it. Your Eras Tour starter kit could include a T-shirt bearing an album title (like Disko Kids’s 1989 tee, £30), a song title or favourite lyric (“But Daddy I love him” from The Tortured Poets Department was popular in Paris; you still have time to print a custom one through Isle of Wight-based sustainable printing studio Teemill). Jeans are fine; so is a sequin skirt, like Hush’s Natalia (£79), Whistles’s sequin-disc mini (£89) or anything you’ve already worn to a Christmas party.
Sequins are such a staple that there may be an Eras effect on their popularity happening: Monsoon is reporting a 45 percent surge in searches for sequin dresses. At M&S, sales across sequin tops, dresses and skirts are up 120 per cent compared to this time last year, and rental platform Hurr says that searches for colourful sequins are up by 344 per cent.
Sequin jacket, £59, Latitud Prfecta
Embellished fringe dress, £149, Coast
If you go the mini route, consider a double layer of sheer tights, for that Tayloresque shimmer. But whatever you do, skip the superstar’s crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutin stiletto boots in favour of low-heeled boots or trainers – three hours is a long time to stand and dance.
A word on friendship bracelets: yes, you have to make them. (Have you started yet? Get going, do it now!) Order a bead kit on Amazon. Listen to the set list. Watch TikToks and YouTube tutorials if you’re so inclined. Make bracelets spelling out song titles, album names, song lyrics that resonate, your Eras Tour city – pretty much anything works. It’s a great bonding activity. The more bracelets, the merrier.
I spent about four hours making bracelets with my daughter, to her rigorous specifications (she wants me to tell you that she came up with all the designs and spent even more time than I did making them). When we arrived at the venue, we found that these bracelets formed the basis of a barter economy characterised by kindness and generosity, where strangers traded and admired each other’s handiwork – a cheering way to pass the time before the opening act.
But back to our outfits. In the hotel, getting ready and dancing along to the set list before the show, we laughed as we noticed the light reflecting off our respective sequins. Together we formed a pastel Lover disco ball. I wondered for a split-second if the butterfly clips and heart-shaped sunglasses were a touch too juvenile. Then I looked at my daughter’s face. And saw that she was so very happy. It was, she told me later, “the best day with you” – and yes, that’s a lyric from a Taylor Swift song.
For you...
T-shirt, £30, Disko Kids; Sequin skirt, £79, Hush; Leather ankle boots, £149, Mint Velvet
Sequin dress, £250, Olivia Rubin; Leather boots, £350, Annie’s Ibiza x Terry de Havilland; Crystal Haze Zirconia earrings, £120, Selfridges
Sequin top, £29.50, Marks & Spencer; Denim shorts, £45, John Lewis; Sunglasses, £77, Le Specs; Leather trainers, £170, Onitsuka Tiger
For your Swiftie...
Denim shorts, £14, Marks & Spencer; Sequin jacket, £42, Monsoon
Sunglasses, £4, Flying Tiger; Ruffled skirt, £19.99, Mango; Beaded bracelet, £6, Claire’s
Diamante heart earrings, £11, Lovisa; Jersey tulle dress, from £32, Boden; Geox Glitter trainers, £47.50, John Lewis
