Taylor Swift, arguably America’s most prominent pop singer, released a new studio recorded album a few days ago called “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” and for many of her fans, this new music is signaling a revised era of her style.
Some have speculated that her latest fashion sense may be indicative of a switch to more mature and literary-inspired wardrobe choices.
”There’s definitely a ‘literary academia’ style that’s going on,” said Sarah Chapelle, who manages a popular Taylor Swift style Instagram and blog. Chapelle also has a book on Swift’s fashion called “Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras,” coming out this October.
“Though we don’t have as many visuals to go on as we have in eras of the past,” she said, “the ones we do have tell a very cohesive story, which is clearly pointing to being inspired by female poets of the past.”
Previously, Swift has drawn inspiration from fairytales (for 2010’s “Speak Now”), 1950s housewives (2012’s “Red”), and even wood nymphs (2020’s “Folklore”).
Now, some think she may be looking to writers such as Sylvia Plath, for whom she has expressed her admiration in the past.
Aside from their shared love of poetry, Plath also shared a love for red lipstick, as the “Bell Jar” author’s husband Ted Hughes once wrote of her in a poem, “Red was your colour… Your lips a dipped, deep crimson.”
Plath may not be the only writer that Swift may have an affinity for. The Schiaparelli Haute Couture gown she wore to this year’s Grammys to announce her new album, was in a color that is often associated with Emily Dickinson, who is reportedly Swift’s sixth cousin three times removed.
Dickinson was known for dressing “wholly in white” and one of her last garments that has come down to us is an ivory shirt dress with lace trim and mother-of-pearl buttons, which is a similar design to what Swift is wearing on one of the vinyl versions of “The Tortured Poets Department.”
“Taylor, I feel, is somebody who’s a little bit of a history nerd,” said Chapelle. “She’s obviously referenced being inspired by other literary works in the past, so I feel like there’s a baseline here… as she enters this world of an album that, I suspect, is a little more cerebral. She’s already advising fans to break out our dictionaries!”
