JANE TIPPETT: What Taylor Swift’s tacky Super Bowl fashion stunt reveals about the future Mrs Kelce… and why it’ll leave her Swifties deeply dismayed

For a not insignificant portion of those tuning in to last night’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles the evening’s most showstopping moment came before play had even started.

Even the presence of the 47th president of the United States could not diminish fans’ anticipation of the arrival of Taylor Swift.

Clad in an Yves Saint Laurent oversize white tuxedo jacket and thigh high white leather boots she strode through the stadium towards her front row VIP seat.

Joined by besties Ice Spice and Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, Swift promptly removed the ill-fitting coat to reveal an ensemble of even more staggering bad taste – white Alaia body suit and thigh skimming sequin studded denim shorts, whose glitzy hues echoed in the large ruby cross pendant which hung around her neck.

Though she was clearly shocked at being booed by Eagles fans, their reception couldn’t take away from a moment, that underscored 35-year-old Swift’s singular status as NFL’s most watched fan.

Since September 2023 when the ‘Love Story’ singer made her debut in the champion’s suite sporting a not so subtle homage to her new beau – a white tank top, Chiefs jacket, red mani and her signature red lips, the Chief’s signatures – Swift has become a fixture on the NFL circuit.

Turning game day into a parade for the paps she quite literally wears her romance with both American football and Kelce, 35, on her sleeve.

From her embrace of the flashy Louis Vuitton streetwear that is Kelce’s trademark style – to the dangling ruby ‘T’ from her sequined Vivienne Westwood burlesque-style corset dress at the Grammy’s this past weekend – Swift has left no one in doubt that she is all in for ‘Team Travis’.

After a more than two decade long-music career and an amassed fortune of an estimated $1.6 billion, Swift is as famous for her music as she is for the parade of men who have come and gone in the life of arguably one of the world’s most famous women.

Yet her decision to embrace the role of the Chief’s number one cheerleader is a notable break from past precedent.

Her long-standing refusal to parade her romances on the red carpet seemed to many a calculated step in preserving their mystique in anticipation of the moment when she could conspicuously memorialize their end in her chart-topping songs.

Clothes became the best barometer of the continuity or strength of a particular romance as Swift’s style responded to and reflected the man on her arm rather than the woman within.

Unlike similar female music idols – Madonna or J Lo – who appear to own the multitude of their various incarnations and never seem adjuncts to the men in their lives, Swift’s identity fluctuates and pivots not according to her own theatrical trajectory but according to her romantic pairing of the moment.

From Rock ‘N’ Roll glam with British singer turned music producer Matt Healey to preppy chic with Conor Kennedy (she even purchased a house in Hyannis port near the famed family’s holiday compound) and much more besides, Swift seems acutely conscious of occupying the girlfriend persona.

It’s an identity that is just as much a part of her brand as the sixty different couture costumes she wore on her Eras tour.

Her near seven-year long romance with clean-cut boy next door British actor Joe Alwyn resulted in only a handful of joint appearances that tantalized her fans as they saw America’s Sweetheart move fulltime to Britain.

Along the way transformed herself, at least from a style perspective, into a veritable English rose.

Fast forward six years (she broke up with Alwyn in 2023) and gone is the sweet sophistication of her diaphanous pale blue Stella McCartney gown she wore to accompany Alwyn to the 2019 BAFTAs and a discreet, but loved up, exit from the private members club Annabel’s later that same night.

Instead, Swift has taken an alternative track, and decided to embrace a full-on WAG lifestyle, complete with ensembles that are as trashy as they are shockingly expensive.

For a January 18th playoff game, she went full on Chanel in a multi thousand-dollar jumpsuit from the brand’s 2025 resort collection, complete with complimenting boots, a classic quilt-stitched Chanel bag, and a dangling pearl belt around her waist.

Embracing the extremes of an almost gangster-style aesthetic, she seems to be reveling in her bad taste and overt displays of material consumption.

Yet the hype surrounding her appearance last night is as much a result of this past season’s pre-game fashion shows, as it was the headline grabbing sprint she made last year, that has consequently turned many a traditional Super Bowl celebration into a ‘Taylor Bowl’ party. 

Rushing off the stage at the end of her Eras tour show in Tokyo she hopped on her waiting private jet to fly the 12 hours and 9,000 miles to watch Kelce defeat the San Francisco 49ers alongside gal pals Blake Lively, Ice Spice and Ashley Avignone.

Landing with only a few hours to spare, she emerged from the flight fresh-faced for her all-important pap walk to her VIP box suite.

Bedecked in an estimated $55,300 worth of ruby and diamond jewelry she showed her now well-honed WAG credentials by the $4,300 Stephanie Gottlieb diamond ’87’ pendant necklace that hung around her neck.

Swift was a front row powerhouse presence and even Kelce’s mother Donna was forced into the back row to make way for the Taylor’s second show in under twenty-four hours.

Perhaps it was her extended stay in Britain alongside a string of British boyfriends that has given her a template from which to model her current incarnation.

She clearly seems to possess a well-versed knowledge of the glory days of Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Tweedy (later Cole) who, in hot pants, cropped tops, sky high Louboutins and oversize sunglasses, trailed their footballer (or soccer) husbands / boyfriends around the championship tournaments of Europe.

Women who were already celebrities in their own right supercharged their fame through their glitzy fashion choices and over-the-top lifestyles and along the way got blamed for the lackluster performance of the English team.

Twenty years on Beckham has swapped cut-off shorts for silk palazzo trousers and has consistently mocked the bad taste she once so proudly owned.

Swift, at least on the surface, seems to be oblivious of Beckham’s reservations about her former style status, and instead has gone full in with this latest incarnation.

Showcasing a long line of skimpy dresses, platform boots, chain style (Chanel!) jewelry she is living in full the American vision of a ‘Footballer’ girlfriend.

For a woman with limitless resources and the power to dress as expensively and beautifully as possible her embrace of kitsch seems more than just a little perplexing.

Yet if we are to believe in her infamous ‘Easter Eggs’ there may be more than just one clue embedded in these outfits – including her Vivienne Westwood plaid skirt set worn to the Saints versus Chiefs game last October and which Swift style experts claimed was chosen to coincide with the Chiefs ‘Crucial Catch’ game which is part of an NFL initiative with the American Cancer Society.

Unlike the backlash that Beckham and others faced for their negative impact on the England team’s game, save for last night’s trouncing, Swift’s involvement with Kelce has for the most part coincided with his own professional heyday, and she is now seen as a financial asset both to him and the NFL overall.

Kelce has seen his Instagram follows nearly triple since their romance began and the Chiefs can now boast an audience that is 57% women, almost ten points higher than the league average.

Even more crucially, if market estimates are to be believed, the NFL has benefited from nearly one billion dollars worth of brand value since Swift’s arrival in 2023.

Her visibility at games has attracted the type of media attention from entertainment outlets that would have normally ignored the happenings of a Sunday night football game, boosting ratings and extending a fan base that has long struggled with capturing female attention.

Swift, a woman known for professional acumen, can hardly be oblivious of such facts.

Rather than a mere by-product of girlish infatuation, I believe them to offer a fascinating clue into Swift’s current fashion trajectory and a rationale for why she has, with more than a hint of irony, played into the extremes of her current WAG style role.

Yet for all its financial dividends – both to Kelce and his company – Swift’s decision to surrender herself to the behest of a current boyfriend once again leaves her own identity buried beneath the man on her arm and the clothes on her body.

That, for all the female empowerment she claims to embody, is surely, for the women who watch and admire her, an extreme disappointment.