Taylor Swift’s Denim Jorts Tuxedo Is a Warning to Us All

The Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium Thursday night for both teams’ NFL regular season opener, and Taylor Swift won. (The Chiefs did fine too.)

Swift was on hand in a VIP suite to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce tighten the ends and celebrate a 27-20 victory over Baltimore. The singer sported a denim-on-denim look for her first appearance of the season, and just one glance at her ensemble makes it clear that Swift isn’t just playing to win—the reigning Super Bowl champ is on the offensive against her detractors from the very first snap.

On Thursday, Swift continued building the lore of Taylor Swift, Football WAG, as she strutted through the tunnels at Arrowhead in a denim Versace bustier (the same style she famously wore on that October 2023 Saturday Night Live date night with Kelce, in a different color), high-waisted denim shorts from Grlfrnd, and Giuseppe Zanotti thigh-high Frannie stiletto boots in maroon patent leather, styled by her go-to, Joseph Cassell. She kept her tip money in a black Louis Vuitton purse with gold hardware, and rounded out the look with brick-red lipstick and heavy gold jewelry.

It was no coincidence that sales of Kelce’s jersey reportedly soared by some 400 percent after Swift’s first Chiefs game last year, and that none other than NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell credited Swift with getting a younger female demographic interested in the sport. Pop into any sports bar and listen when the camera cuts to Swift during a game, those shots that she’s repeatedly said are out of her control: You’ll hear a reaction. When Swift got dressed on Thursday, she knew people would be looking at her, and her outfit and confident swagger seemed to imply she had a few messages to deliver, it seems, without saying a word.

It’s a surprising choice of attire for a football game in the Midwest in September for anyone, and especially for Swift, who for her first appearance at Arrowhead in September 2023 wore a simple white tank and a red jacket. But the denim-on-denim look winked not only at the fabric’s place in traditional Americana, right there beside football, but to being in a relationship placed under the microscope that comes with being a modern-day celebrity.

Perhaps the most iconic all-denim outfits in history were worn by Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake at the 2001 American Music Awards. It was goofy, it was fun, and it created an indelible image in a time before memes were a thing. Who could forget Britney in that tight strapless denim dress, posing with Justin and his full denim suit, complete with denim cowboy hat? Spears was just 19 years old, Timberlake a few weeks shy of 20 himself, and they were pop music’s chart-topping golden couple, unable to grab a Slurpee without being photographed. “I learned that tabloids were making so much money off photos of me, I was almost single-handedly keeping some magazines in business,” she wrote of the scrutiny in her 2023 memoir, The Woman In Me.

Consider the effect the public scrutiny had and continues to have on Spears, then fast forward to this last year. Shortly after going public with Swift, Kelce bought a new house in a more secluded area, after reportedly being hounded by the press. He has often spoken about the conflicting desires to keep his personal life private and to shout from the rooftops how proud he is of his partner. For her part, Swift has been blamed and credited in turn for Kelce and the Chiefs’ on-field performance, commentators and those dads, Brads, and Chads endlessly speculating about whether her presence is a distraction.

Swift and Kelce, individually and together, live their lives on that glass slide, subject to close inspection and the subject of endless gossip and conspiracy theories. Earlier this year, a huge chunk of Americans even thought Swift was involved in a deep-state conspiracy to tamper with the 2024 election. More recently, earlier this week, photos of a fabricated PR plan that purported to outline the couple’s relationship beat by beat all the way through to a scheduled breakup, made the rounds online. Kelce’s team issued a statement, telling Vanity Fair that the documents were “entirely false” and that “we have engaged our legal team to initiate proceedings against the individuals or entities responsible for the unlawful and injurious forgery of documents.”

It’s a damned-if-she-does, damned-if-she-doesn’t scenario, detractors finding ways to slam Swift no matter what she does. By summoning her denims, is Swift issuing a statement of her own, pointing to It Couples of the past and hoping the public and the media have learned their lesson about how they treat them?

Whatever Swift is communicating with her ensemble, it’s unquestionably a stark contrast from her past spectatorial sartorial choices. The last time the Chiefs faced off against the Ravens, in the January 2024 AFC Championship game, Swift was again on hand, wearing a soft red sweater, hair down and wavy, tousled and sweet, pouncing on Kelce for a congratulatory makeout session on the field after the team’s win. On Thursday, that cozy Swift was nowhere to be found, snapped walking hand in hand with Kelce after the game, shielded under his own sunglasses and cap, a united front heading forth together to face the dads, Brads, and Chads of the world.