The revenge dress
For Camille Lescai a 32-year-old retail strategist from Sydney,her concert outfit is something of a revenge dress. Last year,Lescai was the target of relentless online trolling after posting a TikTok of her pink wedding dress,which many deemed unconventional for its colour (the video went so viral her story was picked up byAustralian news outlets).
Lescai chose to recreate Swift’s red carpet look from the 2022 MTV VMAs,a lavish Oscar de la Renta mini dress dripping in silver chains and crystals with Lorraine Schwartz jewels.
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Fittingly,the look was worn during Swift’sReputation-era,a period in which the star sought to take back control of her own narrative following a years-long feud with Kanye West and the Kardashian family.
Reputation,of course,is her favourite album. “I definitely am aReputation girl through and through because I’m very petty. I think petty Taylor is my favourite. I just think that’s relatable.”
“That’s where I identified withLook What You Made Me Do, where I take back that power or when people call you out,you go ‘are you really going to stand by what you said?’”
She decided to learn to sew specifically to make this outfit to wear to the Eras Tour – practising by making a dress for theBarbie movie,among other things. Like many other endeavouring Swifties,Lescai crowdsourced tips for the construction of her garment on TikTok.
“[I realised] Oh,I’m actually really good at sewing,” she says. “Now I have this entire skill,all thanks to Taylor Swift.”
What has she learned from the DIY experience? “You’re allowed to give things a go,and it’s okay if things are imperfect,” she says.
“I really love the craftiness that has come out of this Taylor Swift movement. I think a lot of people feel pressure and think if it’s not 100 per cent perfect,it’s not worth doing. But I completely disagree with that.”
‘One of the biggest monocultural moments I’ve felt in a long time’
Twenty-seven-year-old Katy Humm started working on her concert outfits before tickets for the Australian leg of Swift’s tour even went on sale.
The Geelong-based small business owner says her love affair with the pop star began when she received theFearless album for Christmas in 2008. Echoing a sentiment described by many Millennial and Generation Z fans,Humm feels like she came of age with Swift. “As she grew up,her music changed,and the topics of her songs changed – they became a little bit more serious and adult. I felt like I was growing with her,and so I didn’t really have that growing out of something that you might typically have.”
Humm recreated three of Swift’s Eras tour looks – the Lover,Midnights and Reputation bodysuits,as well as the Karma fringe jacket – all of which started popping up on social media in March 2023. Being such early days,Humm says there weren’t many other fans starting to recreate her outfits,but she eventually befriended two US fans over social media who were able to offer tips. She has since made two extra bodysuits for friends.
Humm has spent over $5000 on her three costumes. She says it’s hard to estimate how many hours she’s devoted to the project,but guesses the total is easily somewhere in the hundreds.
Humm,who has ADHD,says the project was a way to keep herself occupied. “I’m not somebody that can,on the weekends,just sit down and watch TV. I need to do something to my hands ... I’m always doing some sort of craft anyway.”
In today’s landscape of infinite subcultures,Humm says the Eras tour offers a rare moment for community. “It’s a monocultural moment,and because of streaming and stuff,we don’t really get monocultural moments any more. The Eras tour and theBarbie movie are the two biggest monocultural moments I’ve felt in a long time.”
The designer and the muse
For friends Alex Mackintosh,27,and Jacob Aquilina,25,the idea to recreate one of Swift’s iconic looks started as a joke when the pair were working together. But as the US leg of the Eras tour started to be broadcast across social media,the idea took shape. “I just got so inspired by everything,and as a fashion designer,I just loved the looks and really connected through her fashion,” says Aquilina. With Mackintosh as his muse,Aquilina got to work on a painstaking recreation of Swift’s Lover bodysuit.
For Mackintosh,a Sydney-based social media manager and diehard Swiftie,the phenomenon of dressing up for concerts is not new. A fan since she was 11,Mackintosh has been to every single one of Swift’s tours sinceFearless,recreating many of her iconic looks.
For her,Taylor Swift was an escape. “Growing up,I didn’t have any friends. I was very heavily bullied. And the one thing for me is,I found Taylor Swift and the community because I was online at a very young age.”
“I’ve always loved make-up and dressing up ... and now it’s a trend which is really funny because you feel like,you know,you were made fun of for doing it.”
This is not Aquilina’s first time working with sparkles – the young designer created a custom jacket for Sam Smith when they performed in Australia in 2018 – but it’s certainly his biggest project so far. He says the bodysuit took 350 hours,over 20,000 diamantes and months of fittings and collaboration with Mackintosh.
Aquilina will be wearing a white Dion Lee corset,which he has customised with the same sequins used on Mackintosh’s bodysuit. Playing the role of the humble designer,he’s kept his look simple – “I want her to have her moment,” he says.
‘It’s their first concert. I want them to have theentire experience’
While some adults pass on their love of Taylor Swift to their children,for single mum Emma Madley,currently studying a Bachelor of Health Science,it was the other way around. Based in Melbourne,Madley says it was her seven-year-old daughter Emahlia and 10-year-old son Byron who passed on the Swiftie bug.
“Once I started to actually listen to her albums,I was like,‘wow,she’s actually really amazing,she’s so relatable’,I feel like her music touches on points in everyone’s life,” she says.
“I always say to my friends,‘I wish I had been so invested in her as I am now when I was a teenager’,because the things that you go through as a teenager — relationships,boyfriends,friends – her music just touches on all of it.”
The 34-year-old has recreated Swift’sLover bodysuit for Emahlia,who loves what her mum has made. “She’s obsessed with it. It’s hanging on her door at the moment and she literally just walks out and looks at it. Smiles and goes,‘oh,that’s so cute’. She does that like 10 times a day”
Emahlia says she’s looking forward to “having a really fun time” at the concert and loves Swift because “she’s really good at singing”. For her older brother Byron,who loves that Swift “sings about what she’s been through”,Madley has made aReputation-inspired outfit.
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“It’s their first concert that they’re going to,and I’m a single parent. I’m massive on when we get to do things like this. I want them to have theentire experience.”
As a parent,Madley is happy for her kids to look up to Swift as a role model.
“The Swiftie community is probably one of the most beautiful communities I’ve ever come across. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m really excited about taking them to the concert,just being in that atmosphere of like-minded,kind people. I just fully believe in immersing that into them and allowing that to be their influence. This is what they love,and I feel like,as parents,our job is to support their interests.”
In addition to making her children’s outfits,Madley has crafted some boxes in which to preserve them after the concert. “Hopefully,they can keep them for the rest of their lives and be able to reflect back,and they’ll have the memories from the concert attached to the outfit.”
For Madley,her own concert outfit is the last thing on her mind. “I’ve focused on getting their outfits done first,and then mine will just be whatever I can pull together.”
‘All the fans on TikTok are so supportive’
A fan since the 2008 Fearless era,Adelaide-based Jacquie Addison made a promise to herself that if she managed to get her hands on an “impossible ticket”,she would embrace the opportunity to go all out and replicate one of Swift’s tour outfits.Speak Nowis her favourite album,but the costume choice was simple:the Oscar de la RentaMidnightsbodysuit,first created with 5300 hand-embroidered crystals and beads and Karma jacket. Addison’s version was the first time she created anything on this scale,bejewelling manually across seven months to get it as close to Swift’s costume as possible.
“I just slowly paced myself as I didn’t want to rush it or make any mistakes it was roughly $1000 all up as well I recently worked out,” says the 24-year-old,who is attending night three in Melbourne.
For Addison,seeing TikTok trends and tour outfits from her US legs also was a major influence in giving her enough confidence to wear a bodysuit for the first time to a concert.
“Many others are making them seem normal. The Eras Tour is such a wholesome,friendly place where you can dress how you want without feeling unease or being unsafe,” adding she has received a lot of positive feedback from Swifties on Tiktok.
“They’re loving the outfit and asking for tips on how I made it,especially the karma jacket,all the fans on TikTok are so supportive.”
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