Taylor Swift outfits: ‘Swifties’ spending big ahead of Aussie Eras tour
Taylor Swift’s most dedicated fans have spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on costumes to make the most of the mega star’s tour Down Under. See the photos.
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It’s taken 110,000 rhinestones, almost $1000 in supplies, and six weeks of hard work for Taylor Swift superfan Katelin Humm to create just one of her many Eras Tour outfits.
“I’d get up, go to pilates, come home … start working on it, and then sit there and do it until I went to bed,” she said.
The 27-year-old began making the outfit soon after the US leg of the Era’s Tour kicked off, gluing every rhinestone carefully by hand.
Having tickets to multiple shows, Humm couldn’t stop there – she has three bodysuits, as well as the tinsel jacket Swift wears. She’s even replicated Swift’s boots and made a bag and sunglasses inspired by the Reputation album.
Each outfit has set Humm back between $800 and $1000 as well as over 100 hours of work.
“I’ve always been somebody that goes a little bit over the top … it will feel more special to be there in this outfit that I’ve worked really hard on,” she said.
Fellow super-Swiftie and Humm’s friend, Monica Isaacs, has spent a jaw-dropping $39,000 on Swift over the last 18 years.
Being a fan since she first heard Swift’s debut single Tim McGraw, 25-year-old Isaacs has her merchandise collection insured for $25,000.
Last year she saw Swift in Nashville twice and will be attending all seven Australian shows.
She’ll also be heading to Vancouver in December with another fan she met through their mutual adulation of Swift on Twitter (now known as X) to see the All Too Well singer perform again.
Another fan and producer of the Ready For It podcast, Madeleine Starling, has also ventured outside of Australia to see Swift, travelling to the US last year without a ticket but with a dream.
“I would not say the words that I’m not going … I was telling everyone I had tickets – we didn’t actually get tickets until the day before,” she said.
The rest of her trip was spent soaking up the atmosphere of significant Swift tourist destinations, including the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
“I’m lucky I have a supportive partner that accepts my delusion,” she laughed.
All three women are part of the global Swift fan army who share everything from tour outfits and friendship bracelet making tips, to how to score tickets to Swift’s shows.
It’s a mammoth and tight-knit community with Starling affectionately calling it a “cult”.
“It’s a cult but it’s a friendly cult, it’s very welcoming,” she joked.
Posting online to various social media groups, Swifties are their own intelligence organisation, disseminating even the tiniest details of where she goes, who she hangs with, what she wears, her lyrics and videos.
They’re renowned for analysing clues – referred to as “Easter eggs” – the star is known to hide in her songs, artwork, videos and social media.
Their current obsession is when Swift will drop Reputation: Taylor’s Version with many speculating the big reveal will come during her tour of Australia this month.
The clue which has them frothing is she’s been spotted wearing lots of green – and even boots with snakes on them – most notably at the Golden Globes. Fans also pointed at her wavy do at a recent Kansas City Chiefs game as a signal Reputation TV is on its way.
“It’s a full time job that I don’t get paid for. Every day there’s new things popping up – even her outfits, everything is an Easter egg,” Isaacs said.
But more than a place to talk everything Swift, the community is also a place to find friendship.
Isaacs said that she’s made several lifelong friends among Swifties, one of which she’s travelling to Vancouver with later this year to see Swift with.
“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have these friends, we wouldn’t have met,” she said.
She added that the community feels more like a family, with fans quick to band together to help one another score tickets to the sold-out Eras Tour.
“We may not all be friends and all like each other, but we’re all in the same community … We all help each other out when we can,” she said.
“I think that’s really special and really unique to have.”
Superfan Rhianna Hilditch shared the same sentiment, explaining that Swifties have given her the opportunity to step outside her comfort zone.
“I wouldn’t normally just go up to people, but Swifties at a show? Absolutely I’m gonna go up to them, because they’re always just so friendly,” the 26-year-old said.
While she’s usually quite reserved, the student said that she’s already made more than 150 friendship bracelets just so she can speak to new people. “I just find Swifties to be so supportive of each other
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