“I am very hopeful that she will pull out all of the stops for the final weekend of the ‘Eras Tour,'” one Swiftie told Yahoo Entertainment.
Taylor Swift fans are grappling with a bittersweet reality: the end of the “Eras Tour.” Swift ends her tour, which first kicked off in March 2023, in Vancouver, where she’ll play three consecutive shows on Dec. 6, 7 and 8. Over nearly two years, the pop star has taken her three-hour spectacle to 14 countries, playing more than 150 shows across sold-out stadiums in 54 cities.
Since her first show in Glendale, Ariz., Swift has punctuated her tour with a curated rotation of looks that fans have practically memorized. Swifties have even made a fantasy-styled game out of it. Known as “Swiftball,” fans can make a series of guesses — which surprise songs she’ll play, which outfits she’ll wear — ahead of each performance.
For Swifties, intentionality is at the core of the pop star’s artistry.
“It’s one of the places [Swift] has confirmed she leaves Easter eggs,” Jordan Johnson, a Swift fan who’s attended the “Eras Tour” seven times, told Yahoo Entertainment of Swift’s evolving wardrobe. “We can easily define which era [she] is in just by looking at her style, so the ‘Eras Tour’ was a seamless transition to this! Her outfits have changed as she’s changed the set and have allowed her to be super expressive onstage.”
Swift is known for her hidden messages. Every aspect of the tour, from the setlist to wardrobe choices, serves a larger purpose. Fans are steadfast in the fact that Swift, as her Midnights track suggests, is a mastermind. When she sported a series of new outfits during her Paris, Milan and Miami tour dates, no detail went unnoticed.
Swift performs in Milan on July 13, 2024. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
To usher in her latest era with her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, Swift debuted a series of custom Vivienne Westwood Couture designs in Paris on May 9. Among the newly debuted looks was a draped corseted gown with the lyrics “I love you, it’s ruining my life,” from the album’s lead single, “Fortnight,” printed on. Swift donned another corseted gown during her July 13 show in Milan, with black crystals spelling out the lyrics “Who’s afraid of little old me? You should be…,” from her track “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”
“The typewriter was a theme throughout this chapter of work, so to print it as such on the gowns conveyed how truly tortured and stuck she felt as she repeated the lyrics over and over, like a broken record,” Courtney Bissinger, a Swift-focused content creator, told Yahoo of the decision to incorporate The Tortured Poets Department lyrics on the garments themselves.
Following a two-month break, Swift sent fans into a frenzy on Oct. 18 when she debuted a new rendition of the asymmetrical black catsuit she famously wears during the show’s Reputation act onstage in Miami.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Hard Rock Stadium on October 18, 2024. (John Shearer/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Staying true to the era’s snake-infused imagery, the newly bespoke Roberto Cavalli outfit featured a statement golden cobra stretching from her leg up her body. For many fans, the decision to debut a new Reputation-themed outfit was deliberate. To them, it appeared that Swift was trying to imply that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) — the long-awaited rerecorded version of her 2017 album of the same name — was on its way.
Roberto Cavalli creator director Fausto Puglisi’s sketch for Swift’s “Reputation” catsuit. (Roberto Cavalli)
“With Reputation (Taylor’s Version) on the horizon, [fans] are always looking for a clue of when it will be dropped. When she changed from the red to gold Reputation bodysuit [on tour], we knew that it was a tiny step forward to getting the rerelease,” said Jen, a member of the fandom who asked Yahoo to use her first name for privacy reasons.
“The Reputation set on the ‘Eras Tour’ had always had one bodysuit,” Bissinger said. “From night one in Glendale, Ariz., to her 131st show in London, England. Out of all of the eras on tour, Reputation was the only era to have one bodysuit when the others had upwards of five.”
