For Taylor Swift fans at The Eras Tour, the concert 'fit makes the whole experience shimmer

Over the weekend, thousands of Taylor Swift fans in shimmering, sequined garments in every color of the Swiftian rainbow from Fearless gold to Lover pink descended on MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

They came to experience The Eras Tour, a three-hour celebration of all of Swift's 10 albums and past selves. More than a concert, The Eras Tour is also an opportunity for fans to honor their former selves, their lives having been defined and soundtracked by her music.

Fans outside of the stadium. Credit: Marissa Alper

She'll get you out on the floor, shimmering beautiful

Swift's neatly defined eras and easily recognizable looks were reflected in the crowd making their pilgrimage to the stadium. Ask any Swiftie and they'll tell you that concert 'fits are an important part of the tour experience. From seeking out online inspiration to excitedly fawning over other fans' looks, dressing up adds to the togetherness of a Swift show.

Mashable talked to dozens of fans outside of the stadium on Friday night, May 26, and it became clear how these looks allow them to revisit their personal histories with Swift. I didn't have a ticket to the show, and I too dressed up for the occasion in a t-shirt from Swift's Speak Now tour, a token from the very first concert I ever attended as an awkward middle schooler with my dad and neighbor.

SEE ALSO: It's not a phase. It's an era.

One fan, Brittany Guard, wore the Folklore cardigan over a homemade recreation of Swift's "Junior Jewels" shirt from the "You Belong With Me" music video. She paired it with a "I'm in my Lover era" clear plastic purse — to adhere to MetLife's bag policy – over her shoulder. "I made [the shirt] a long time ago, for Halloween. I believe it was [during the] 1989 era, so when was that? 2015?" she told me. Notably, it's not the specific year that first came to Guard's mind but the specific Swift era. Time is defined by the things that we love.

Guard in a recreation one of Swift's most memorable shirts. Credit: Marissa Alper Count the eras represented in Guard's look. Credit: Marissa Alper

It was Guard's second Eras Tour show; she spent the previous weekend in Foxborough, Massachusetts at one of several rain shows to ring in her 30th birthday. She wore a Lover dress and handmade butterfly shoes.

I'm sure before every show on The Eras Tour, the air crackles with anticipation, but Friday was Swift's first tour stop on holy ground just outside of New York City, the setting of a significant portion of her discography. The question of which New York songs Swift would perform in the acoustic surprise portion of her set swirled among fans.

In the parking lot I chatted with two biblically accurate "Anti-Hero" ghosts draped in bedsheets holding High Noons, Courtney Weren and Kate Westerman.

Weren and Westerman neglected to cut out eyeholes in their ghost sheets. Credit: Marissa Alper Beneath the sheet reveal! Credit: Marissa Alper

"We also have other eras outfits underneath," said Weren, a 28-year-old from Hoboken, New Jersey, from under her sheet. Like Swift would later that evening, the ghosts performed a costume change to reveal a purple dress akin to the dress the “Bejeweled” singer wore on her Speak Now tour and her "22" music video look. Westerman even traded out her cat ears and daisy-rimmed sunglasses for red heart-shaped ones and the iconic black "22" hat.

Talk your talk and go viral

On TikTok, the tags for "Eras Tour," "The Eras Tour," and "Eras Tour Taylor Swift" have accumulated over 17 billion views and counting. "Eras Tour outfits" and "Eras Tour outfit" have garnered 648.3 million and 306.3 million views, respectively.. One popular sound Swifties use to post their outfits is a mashup of an AI-generated clip of Swift saying, "Oh my god, your Eras Tour outfit looks so fucking good" with the chorus of "Karma." It has soundtracked over 26,700 outfit transition videos.

Emma Baxendel, a 25-year-old in a Lover-inspired poofy dress, explained to me that everyone is so dressed up because of “the Insta-TikTokification of the world." She pointed to the recent Harry Styles tour as an example of this, while her boyfriend, Michael Flynn, wearing a matching swirling pastel short-sleeve collared shirt, added, "Everyone has a platform now."

"We're in our 'Lover' era." Credit: Marissa Alper "My first tour was 'Red; and I went mostly for Ed Sheeran, now I am on Team Taylor," Baxendel told me. Credit: Marissa Alper

In the pre-TikTok era, Swift and her mother, Andrea, incentivized fans to go all out for shows. Andrea used to handpick fans throughout the show to go backstage to meet Swift.

When live music returned in the latter half of 2021, the digital world was already consumed by adhering to hyper-specific aesthetics, and Styles' Love on Tour birthed a new phase of concert attire. An unofficial dress code defined by feather boas, groovy patterns, and bright colors emerged and uploading outfit transition TikToks became the norm. Now those familiar with Love on Tour content can spot a Styles concert attendee from a glance.

But unlike Love on Tour, a singular aesthetic doesn't define The Eras Tour. Instead, fans' outfits draw from Swift's deep catalog and many successful rebrands. For every Swiftie in cowboy boots, there's another in sparkly gogo boots or white Keds. The premise of the tour encourages nostalgia and reconnecting with moments in both your own and Swift's life. Fans pull imagery from different eras and combine them not only to express that they're diehard fans but to proclaim which albums or moments resonate most.

"This is from 'Valentine's Day,' that movie that Taylor is in, but I am honestly jealous I didn't wear a sparkly dress," Emily Nader, a 20-year-old from Long Island, New York, told me. Credit: Marissa Alper

Spinning like a girl in a brand new dress

A trio of friends approached the stadium from the parking lot shrouded in emerald green cloaks. Meg Yerrapothu, a 28-year-old who traveled from Chicago to see the show with her best friend Sarah Lee, explained that the cloaks are a reference to Evermore. When I asked which song , Lee and a third friend, Danielle Langan, a 29-year-old ER doctor from Staten Island, unabashedly sang “wait for the signal and I'll meet you after dark" in unison — a nod to the “Willow” music video.

'Evermore' lends itself to witchy vibes. Credit: Marissa Alper

Yerrapothu excitedly walked me through her look like it was an outfit of the day TikTok, except she named Swift songs instead of where she purchased each item. Pointing at her red heart-shaped sunglasses, she said, "Glasses are '22.'"

Adele McDonald had the most intricate costume I saw all night. Wrapped in gold chains, her chest read, "Karma" in glittery, gold lettering, and she wore a pearl-encrusted crown on her head. "Karma is a god, so I am the goddess of Karma. That song was stuck in my head for two weeks, and I didn't know what to wear, so…" that’s how her look came together, McDonald explained.

McDonald completed her look with silver-colored contact lenses that she put in near the entrance of the stadium. Credit: Marissa Alper

McDonald's friend, Siena McFetriadge, told me, "[Adele] saw a TikTok of someone saying they thought their outfit might be a bit too much and then she thought her outfit might be too much, but I told her it's the New York show. You'll be in everyone's TikTok outfit inspo posts." McDonald added, "I thought about making a TikTok, but it took 3 hours to drive here from Brooklyn, so I got ready entirely in the car in the parking lot, but we are here now."

The show is a place where time spent online comes to fruition — and not just the time spent battling it out for tickets.

Taylor Kennedy, Emily Hailey, and Daylyn Weppener, a group of friends in their late 20s attending their second Swift show all together, each paid tribute to their favorite albums. Kennedy wore a purple Speak Now-inspired dress and added Swift's old signature accessories: a 13 on her hand and the lyrics to "Long Live" snaking down her arm.

Kennedy's 'Speak Now' outfit is accurate down to the "13" on her hand. Credit: Marissa Alper

Hailey found her Midnights dress through the Facebook group "Eras Tour Outfits." The group is a space for Swifties to post their past and future outfits, buy and sell outfits, and seek advice on how to recreate Swift looks. The group boasts over 34,000 members. Facebook generally has a bad rap, but the posts in the group are wholesome and the comments are filled with supportive suggestions.

Fatima Hijazi, a 19-year-old NYU student studying chemistry, dressed up as Swift delivering NYU's 2022 commencement speech or "NYU Taylor." Hijazi wore purple NYU doctoral robes that she "bought off of someone on Reddit." The Reddit in question was r/SwiftieMerch, a community of 13,500 Swifties. "I go to NYU, so it makes sense and I want to get a doctorate in chemistry, so I thought let's get the robes beforehand," explained Hijazi.

For Swifties, every Swift moment is fair game to dress up as. Credit: Marissa Alper

So make the friendship bracelets

The most important accessory at The Eras Tour is a wrist full of friendship bracelets. Inspired by the bridge of "You're On Your Own, Kid" where Swift sings, "So make the friendship bracelets / Take the moment and taste it," fans took to making beaded bracelets, often with lyrics or niche fandom references, and exchanging them at shows. Baxendell found out about the trend on Twitter and came wearing a wistful of bracelets she made. She was unsure if she'd end up trading them. "We are attached to all the ones we made, but maybe," Baxendell told me.

Delia Fishburne and Felicia Fishburne came prepared with a carabiner each loaded up with colorful, wordy friendship bracelets. They saw it on TikTok and thought, "Oh, that looks fun." The teens asked me what my favorite Swift album was, and said Reputation, even though that's an impossible question. One looked through her bracelets and said, "I love this one." She pulled a red and gold “Dress” bracelet off the ring and handed it to me.

Gotta catch 'em all! Credit: Marissa Alper Like Swift, each of Kennedy's nails represents a different era. Credit: Marissa Alper

It's not just TikTok teens engaging in The Eras Tour festivities. A group of moms with their daughters all wore matching turquoise, sequined jackets inspired by a 1989 tour look with red lipstick. Sarah Wilton, Diane Considine, and Danielle Arnold — a principal, teacher, and librarian at Belmar Elementary School — were introduced to Swift by their kids, but Arnold is now a big fan and orchestrated the outfits.

"I went to the Vegas show with my husband, and I felt left out not being dressed up. Before that, I thought I was too old to dress up, but everyone did it," explained Arnold. "Why wouldn't we dress up? Swifties are fun," added Considine.

The Eras Tour (Mom's Version). Credit: Marissa Alper

When the tassel dresses, cowboy hats, and see-through bags cleared out, a thin crowd of ticketless fans lining the periphery of the stadium remained. Many were refreshing Ticketmaster hoping for a miracle, others had resale Facebook or Twitter pages open. More than a few cried.

Long live all the magic we made. Credit: Marissa Alper

Like those left lingering outside, I never secured a ticket to the show, but when I exited the parking lot with a new friendship bracelet around my wrist hearing the opening lines of "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince" all I felt was the infectious joy of everyone inside. It's the power of fandom, especially one as passionate as Swift's — even when you're on the outside, you always feel like you belong.