Mate. Clearly, you do not want to cross one Taylor Swift. The long-awaited return of Swifty has been well worth it, if celebrity carnage and maximum shade is your lifeblood. First she dropped the track last week that’s already single of the year if numbers are what we’re going by (the song itself is polarising, and the subject of much yelly debate in our office – mainly just me yelling at my silent colleagues about how it’s actually great and shut up you don’t know anything).
Then, she released the music video last night, which contained a multitude of ‘did-she-or-didn’t-she-just-hardcore-burn-them’ moments. I mean, there’s been no confirmation from Tay’s camp but Kim, Kanye, Calvin, Katy and even Beyonce seem to get absolutely slammed by Taylor.
And now, we have the merch. Once again, it looks like Taylor’s not done throwing shade like it’s going out of style – and once again, Kimye seem to be the #1 targets.
So first thing’s first – most of the merch is gross. It’s terrible. Very, very bad. I’m all for someone changing their ~lewk~ but like, who is going to wear this shit? She seems to be trying to do a Justin Bieber/Kanye and make fashion merch, but it’s not working. I mean, look.
Hideous. Burns my eyes. Someone catapult that abomination into the ocean and hopefully a hungry shark eats it. Except not really coz then the shark will DIE FROM FASHION POISON, that is how bad it is.
Moving along to the juicy shit – does this design seem familiar?
Looks a lot like Kanye West‘s Life Of Pablo tour merch, don’t ya think?
Okay. I know some of you are eye-rolling at me through your computer screen – I’m aware it’s not an EXACT replica. I’m also aware the Pablo merch has been ripped before/”inspired” other merch and fashion, from Forever 21 to Father John Misty. But given Taylor’s beef with Kanye this definitely FEELS intentional, don’t you think?
The connection to Kanye’s Pablo tour hasn’t gone unnoticed by other people on the internet besides me, too. Since Tay released her album artwork, there’s been much discussion over how similar the vibe is to Pablo.
Kanye’s “Pablo Pop-up Shop” vs. Taylor Swift’s Reputation pic.twitter.com/xHNxEtBawi
— marj 🌼 (@marjswifter) August 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/panechotr/status/901154817057468418
https://twitter.com/quiquiquincy/status/900943671301779456
https://twitter.com/mosh_0/status/901050753371996160
https://twitter.com/issalovatic/status/900936625634529280
It’s all just soooo… Kanye. I feel like she’s distanced the design enough to avoid a lawsuit while still throwing daggers with the similarity, you know? Like look at this Taylor jumper.
It’s just got that whole Yeezy vibe to it, like here’s a piece from Yeezy season 1. AGAIN – yes, they’re both jumpers and yes – plenty of designers use this style. But when you put it on top of the context with Kanye/Taylor it all just FEELS WEIRD OK.
On a lighter note – how’s how Taylor has MERCHED the infamous Tom Hiddleston “I <3 TS” top? Looooord that is outstanding.
Actually unsure if Tom Hiddleston would think the entire thing was a massive LOL or be completely mortified.
If you want some of this merch for yourself, you can grab it from her official site here.
