How Taylor Swift is Counting on Fashion to Change Her 'Reputation'

In the lull between premieres, fans track down paparazzi photos of the singer as she records these music videos, often identifying the exact pieces she's wearing on set long before we get a good look and them. And the New Taylor has a thing for the most zeitgeist-y designers in the industry—ones that, if you asked is in 2014, we would never have thought to be hanging in her closet. She's worn sequined graphic hoodies and snake boots by Gucci, a blood-red ball gown by Balmain, a cape by Balenciaga, and thigh-high footwear and jackets by Vetements. If reading off the items in Swift’s latest videos feels like a throwback to the chorus of Kreayshawn’s 2011 “Gucci Gucci,” you're not wrong: Swift is stocking up on designers that have their own reputations for edgy, boundary-pushing, and somewhat over-the-top apparel.

In the past year and a half, Swift has notably retreated from the public eye (and her famous squad.) That means that the Taylor Swift we see in her music videos (or in related clips posted on her verified Youtube page) is the only Taylor Swift we get through imagery. It also means that every time she posts a new photo or video, it opens up the floodgates for speculation, fan theories, and over-interpretation of every last detail. What she wears in these rare moments she opens herself up to the public carries more meaning, as do the designers she picks. Swift likely knows this, so the labels she's been selecting feel very much deliberate in getting her new #brand across.

Think about the labels she's been wearing in all Reputation-related media. It's been a mix of luxe brands that bring together streetwear, punk, and an IDGAF attitude—like anything designed by Demna Gvasalia, Alessandro Michele, and Donatella Versace, folks with venerable histories of pushing the envelope. (Same goes for her style off-camera, where she's been wearing Faith Connexion, Valentino, and Unravel.) With these pieces, Swift sends a message: She’s done with the innocent, er, reputation she’s built up, and is replacing it with something harder and more self-assured. Coming out of a three-year hiatus from music, she needs the most recognizably influential designers in her corner—or, at the very least, she needs to demonstrate she knows what's in the zeitgeist.