Taylor Swift sets summer’s hottest dress code: Sequins, boots, cowboy hats

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN

New York (CNN) — What is the summer 2023 dress code? Call it the TikTok-approved coastal cowgirl aesthetic. Or, in other words, the Taylor Swift look.

With superstar entertainers coming in record-breaking crowds for The Eras Tour, retailers across the country marketed to Swifties, aggressively and inventively, as its 52-stadium tour arrived in their cities.

Womenswear company founder Taylor Johnson says that, from one Taylor to another, she owes Swift a huge debt of gratitude for going on tour again and making her sparkling sequined dresses, cowboy hats, and rhinestone boots massively sellable. “This has been a wild year for us because of Taylor Swift,” said Johnson, CEO of Hazel & Olive.

One of their dresses in particular, called the Eras Sequin Fringe Dress, which retails for $129, was on fire. “Our phones exploded and we received hundreds of calls and Instagram messages about the dress,” she said.

Francescas, a fashion chain with 454 boutiques across the country, hopes Swift’s tour will make an impact. But ruffle, prairie, babydoll and bow-back dresses get a 30% jump in sales in stores when Swift is in town, said Leanne Neale, vice president of concept and creative with the Houston company.

Trendy clothing chain Altard State has proactively embraced Swift mania curated appearance from his collection for every Swift album. Enter your Era, it beckons.

Ticketmaster mayhem

Swift’s The Eras Tour, was famous before it even started. The concert was so highly anticipated that presale tickets on Ticketmaster became highly publicized disaster. Ticketmaster blamed overwhelming demand for crashing its website and eventually canceling the sale of tickets to the public. Many were left without tickets even after purchase.

The chaos sparked the ire of lawmakers, leading to a Justice Department investigation and a congress session.

Ticketmaster apologized to Swift and her fans for the bad experience and said it would work to shore up our technology for the new standards that demand for Swift’s tours has set.

It was too late for some of the fans who picked up Ticketmaster (and parent company Live Nation) to court.

But the show had to go on, and it did, with Swift heading to New Jerseys MetLife Stadium (seating capacity: 82,500) for a show over Memorial Day weekend.

On the outskirts

At Altard State, We’ve never set up shop this way but call it Taylor week, says Callie Lewis, chief sales officer. Mannequins wearing Swift-inspired looks were placed front and center in their store along with other concert-friendly merchandise such as transparent handbags that comply with concert venue safety protocols.

What’s moving? From evening gowns and metallic boots to romantic, breezy long gowns, tulle tops, bold red gowns and more. and many from the outskirts. We can’t restock fast enough, Lewis said. The hot seller includes a lavender colored outfit (inspired by Swift’s song Lavender Haze.)

Swift isn’t the only hot concert tour impacting the fashion business in 2023. Neale in France says he’s looking forward to Beyoncé. Renaissance Tour sparked demand for concert attire as well. Francescas’ shop, he said, would also organize an attractive appearance for BeyHive.

Retailer Johnson admits that all the craziness for this product is a good problem to have, considering that as many as 80% of Hazel & Olives’ monthly orders today are for concert appearances. (He refuses to disclose his annual sales but says he runs a small business worth millions of dollars a year.

Johnson says he has been ordering maximum quantities of his best-selling concert style from his supplier, but even that isn’t enough, these days.

As soon as I got more inventory, it sold quickly, he said, adding that he even flew in the merchandise at a higher cost from his suppliers in China, instead of shipping it by sea as he normally does, to speed things up. delivery. As for Taylor Swift’s business, Johnson says he’s grateful for it.

This is crazy. “I need Taylor Swift to go to concerts all year round because now we’re getting ready to have our biggest selling year yet,” he said.

The-CNN-Wire
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