New York
CNN
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What’s the dress code of Summer 2023? You can call it the TikTok approved coastal cowgirl look. You could also call it the Taylor Swift style.
With the superstar entertainer pulling in record-breaking crowds for “The Eras Tour,” retailers across the country are marketing to “Swifties,” aggressively and inventively, as her 52-stadium tour hits their towns.
Women’s clothing-company founder Taylor Johnson said that, from one Taylor to another, she owes Swift a big “Thank You” for going on tour again and making sparkly sequined dresses, cowboy hats and rhinestone boots massively saleable. “This has become a wild year already for us because of Taylor Swift,” said Johnson, CEO of Hazel & Olive.
The Eras Sequin Fringe dress, which sells at $129 retail, has caught fire. “Our phones have been blowing up and we’ve been getting hundreds of calls and Instagram messages about that dress,” she said.
Francesca’s, a fashion chain with 454 boutiques nationwide, expected Swift’s tour to have an impact. Swift’s tour has a positive impact on sales of ruffle dresses, Prairie, Babydoll, and Bow-back styles, according to Leanne Neale. Vice president for concept and creativity at Houston-based company, Leanne.
Trendy clothing chain Altar’d State has proactively gone all-in on Swift mania by curating looks from its collection for every one of the Swift albums. “Enter your Era,” it invites.
Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” was infamous before it even began. Tickets presale at Ticketmaster was so highly anticipated, it became a very publicized event. debacle. Ticketmaster attributed the crash of its website to an extraordinary amount of demand and canceled all ticket sales. Many people were without tickets even after purchasing.
A Justice Department probe and congressional hearing were held after lawmakers became angry about the mess.
Ticketmaster apologized to Swift and her fans for the “terrible experience” and said it would work to “shore up our tech for the new bar that has been set by demand” for Swift’s tour.
It was a bit too late to bring Ticketmaster, and Live Nation (parent company), into court.
But the show must go on, and it did, with Swift headed to New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium (seating capacity: 82,500) for shows into and over the Memorial Day weekend.
At Altar’d State, “We’ve never prepped stores this way but we’re calling it Taylor week,” said Callie Lewis, chief merchandising officer. Stores feature mannequins in Swift-inspired outfits, along with concert-friendly products like clear bags that are compliant with concert security.
What’s moving? What’s moving? There are lots of them. Fringe. “We can’t restock fast enough,” said Lewis. Hot sellers include lavender-colored clothing (inspired by Swift’s song Lavender Haze.)
Swift isn’t the only hot concert tour influencing the fashion business in 2023. Neale at francesca’s said she’s looking to Beyonce’s “Renaissance” tour firing up demand for concertwear, too. Francesca’s stores, she said will also curate looks that appeal to the BeyHive.
Retailer Johnson admits that all this mad dash for product is a good problem to have, given that as much as 80% of Hazel & Olive’s monthly orders currently are for concert looks. (She declined to disclose her annual sales but said she operates a multimillion-dollar-a-year small business.
Johnson said she’s been ordering the maximum quantity of the most in-demand concert styles from her supplier, but even that’s not enough, lately.
“As soon as I get more inventory in, it sells outs quickly,” she said, adding that she’s even flying in merchandise at a higher cost from her suppliers in China, instead of shipping it via sea as she usually does, in order to speed up delivery. As for the Taylor Swift bump to business, Johnson said she’s grateful for it.
“This is crazy. I need Taylor Swift to go on concert year-round because we’re now on pace to have our biggest sales year yet,” she said.