In honor of the album release of RED (Taylor’s Version), I decided to celebrate by recreating outfits from my favorite Taylor Swift eras. Taylor is one of my style icons and because of the pandemic, we’ve missed out on countless iconic looks from her! But with all of her re-recordings coming out, we get the chance to be nostalgic and take a look back at all her eras.
One of my favorite parts about being a Swiftie is getting to experience the new era with her. Unique to Taylor, whenever she releases a new album, a new style, hairdo, and aesthetic follows. It brings the album to life and gives Swifties new looks to follow, which is always exciting. So many times I’ve said to myself “I love her outfit,” but I’ve never actually tried to recreate them. So, I dug in my closet and managed to find pieces that match my favorite T-Swift eras:
- FEARLESS
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Simply put, Fearless is criminally underrated. When I think of this era, I think of magic, fairytales, and romance, because that’s exactly what it was.
During this time, Taylor rocked almost every dress possible: sundresses, floral prints, sparkly dresses. If you have a lot of feminine and flowy dresses, this is the perfect era for you. Think Shakespeare and bohemian meets the girl next door.
Trying to match her street style, I wore a flowy white dress with pink and red florals on it. While I wouldn’t exactly consider this a sundress, this is something I could see then 18-year-old Taylor wear to a brunch. If you want to get as close to her Fearless era style as possible, opt for a pair of scandals, long necklaces, and a natural makeup look.
Styled pieces: Dress – TJ Maxx, Purse – Amazon
Makayla Holbrook - LOVER
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Ah, Lover.
Chef’s kiss.
The length of this era is an absolute injustice, and I will never get over that. Lover is definitely my favorite era – the colors, celebrating love, rainbows. It was just so happy and magical. Plus, can we talk about Taylors fashion? The sparkly dresses, the bold pink lips, and her dip-dyed pink hair. I mean, come on now. She is the moment.
I stuck with the red and pink color scheme and wore a simple red one piece with a pastel pink floral midi skirt. If you want a lover-esque outfit, stick with pastels (lots of pink, red, and blue), sparkles, and fluff. You can easily wear it on a date, to a Valentine’s Day party, or just when you want to feel more girly.
And of course, you can’t forget to wear a paper ring.
Styled pieces: Top – Brandy Melville, Skirt – Princess Polly
- FOLKLORE
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Everything about folklore is beautiful: the lyrics, the storytelling, the visuals. Folklore is actually the album that made me start listening to Taylor. I heard “cardigan”, fell in love with it, and it all started from there. Everything about it is so different from all of her other typical pop singles.
Folklore screams cottagecore. You’ll want to dress in cream colored dresses, sweaters, and maxi skirts. Her style during this era was cozy and minimalistic, so keep it simple. I don’t have any neutral toned dresses, so I wore a white and light blue striped dress and layered it with a cozy sweater over it.
Just like Fearless, stick with a natural makeup look (or simply wear none at all) and try to stay away from jewelry. Add double low buns and some brown booties to finish your look!
Styled Pieces: Sweater – Aerie, Dress – Thrifted
- EVERMORE
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The sister album to folklore, the music is similar but evermore fashion has a different touch to it – it’s a bit more heavy and dark (it strangely gives me Twilight vibes.) Taylor typically wore heavy jackets, turtlenecks, and sweaters. Common colors and patterns during this era are black, plaid, grunge purple, and cream white.
Unlike my other outfits, this outfit was directly inspired by her album cover. I wore a burnt orange trucker coat, black turtleneck, and a black wool newsboy hat. Like folklore, I wouldn’t wear jewelry with this outfit as evermore has a minimalistic fashion aesthetic to it, just put your hair in the iconic french braid and you’re good to go!
Styled Pieces: Everything is thrifted
FInal thoughts
I finally gave myself the chance to dig to the bottom of my closet and wear those pieces that I forgot about! So many times we see looks from our favorite celebrities and love them but never try to recreate them, so this was so much fun to do! You don’t need to have a millionaire closet to dress like these celebrities, you just need a few staple pieces. It isn’t about the trends, the price tags, a modesty versus revealing style, none of that. Fashion is all about creating looks that you love and feel good in. Have fun with it!
For now, you can find me sobbing to RED (Taylor’s Version) for the rest of the year. Anyone have a box of tissues?