Dantay's Inferno

(Grain of salt rating: I can prove nothing, but the music video paints a vivid picture)

Today marks 4 years since the infamous 4th of July Gilded-Age-Gatsby bash where the “I <3 TS” tee was donned, shown in papagraphs ‘round the world. Many laughed, but the clues we have uncovered via sleuthing suggest a more nefarious possibility. 

A replica of this tee appears in the Look What You Made Me Do music video, and the public assumption has become that Taylor is parodying her romantic affairs Blank Space-style.

But what if I told you that Taylor is playing Karlie in that scene, not herself.

Feel familiar?

Yeah. Taylor is playing Karlie here (and in the rest of the video, apart from the Old Taylors, of course…but that’s for another post.)

Why does this matter?

Let’s start here. 

This dance scene looks remarkably like a scene from Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi music video:

In addition, Taylor makes a sign by her eye during the dance

It seems to echo Lady Gaga’s in “Paparazzi”.

Okay, makes sense, you say. Taylor and Tom’s relationship was riddled with paparazzi shootings, most notably at the July 4th party. Why are you wasting my time with this? Karlie was at the party, duh. We all know that.

Well, on my 1,907,013th time watching the LWYMMD video, something clicked.

There is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-moment where the backup dancers pop out from behind “Karlie” and pull out walkie talkies as she snarls, “Look what you made me do.” Then it cuts to another one of the Karlies cutting off a plane wing.

This always struck me as odd, until I had figured out that this was Karlie not Taylor…and the men have not revealed their “I <3 TS” shirts yet. 

The next time we see the men, they have put their walkies away and proceed to take off their blazers to reveal the t-shirts at Karlie’s bidding. This is interwoven with shots of the plane representing Taylor’s reputation–and perhaps her chances at a transatlantic romance–being chainsawed by another Karlie.

The next time we see this gang, they’re doing the aformentioned paparazzi dance.

These breadcrumbs, along with other sleuthing we’ve done on the lyrics of reputation and Lover, lead us to wonder if the video isn’t hinting that Karlie was involved in calling the paps on the July 4th party (and maybe even other dates of Tom and Taylor’s, seeing as Karlie probably would have known everywhere Taylor was going, being her “best friend.”) 

Tom mentioned in the infamous post-Hiddleswift GQ interview that one of the friends at the party had the tank and lent it to him as a joke/because of his sunburn. Hmm. We wonder if Karlie gave him the shirt, knowing the paps were coming and realizing what an embarrassing shot it would make. It’s interesting that the photoshoot Taylor chose to reference was a picture of Karlie *yelling on a beach*.

This is all speculation, of course. I know most of the world thinks Hiddleswift was a PR move and thus the paps were part of that, but it’s interesting that Taylor isn’t even wearing a cute swimsuit when the pap photos were taken. She changes into cute ones at other parts of the day when the group is taking photos for Instagram. And she usually wears cute clothes or swimsuits for other pap walks or pre-arranged pap shoots, but in the Newport beach photos, she is in basically a lifeguard swimsuit. Don’t get me wrong, she still looks cute, but makes me think she didn’t know paps were coming.

And let me add…paparazzi do not just hang out in Rhode Island. I know the easy answer is “everyone knew that the party would be there so of course paps were there”, and that’s valid. But what I’m going on is…why are these things in the music video and what message is behind them?

The video could be saying that Karlie was tipping the paps off about Taylor and Tom in general, maybe not specifically Rhode Island…It’s interesting that Taylor and Tom dancing was all over the news the next day when (as I understand it) press aren’t really at the actual gala part, so most of what we know was filtered through celebrities’ social media…makes me think someone called the press to chatter, and Karlie posted a video of the two dancing, taken from far away.

I don’t know, I just know that this video is trying to say something.

Balcony...Love Story...paparazzi...

I've been pondering Taylor's VMAs dress a lot because it's so out of character from what she usually wears. It immediately caught my attention with it's chain-like look and that nagging feeling that I've seen it somewhere before.

I feel Taylor in her recent career has played characters and referenced other films, people, and her own career, in order to tell stories she can't express outright because of her high profile nature.

The dress seemed too out of character not to be laiden with meaning, especially since it's her first major appearance in awhile and connected with an album announcement.

1. It brought a few things to mind for me. The obvious parallel many were drawing was flapper, which brings Zelda Fitzgerald to mind. I recall Taylor saying once that F. Scott is one of her favorite writers, so this is an interesting potential connection. I think Zelda's life is often glamorized as part of flapper culture, but in reality it was... terrible. She dealt with serious mental illness and it's thought that F. Scott stole some of her work. I bet Taylor can relate to some of that!

2. Speaking of someone whose talent was exploited by men, Britney just sprung to mind when I saw the dress, perhaps in part because I recently learned recently that she wore 3D butterfly shoes in a 2018 social post which Taylor then wore in 2019.

I did a little googling, and found the cover art for Britney's album Glory...chains and glitzy bikini/bodysuit...

Even more striking is the resemblance to a dress Britney wore at the GLAAD awards in 2018:

3. Another thing that sprung to mind was Princess Leia's famous bikini. Carrie Fisher (rest in peace...the world has a Carrie-shaped hole) was so open about her struggles with alcohol, the pressures of fame, sexism in the entertainment industry, her mental health, and disordered eating. She was a talented writer and got involved in screenwriting and doctoring, not unlike Taylor is venturing from music into film. AND Carrie published her diaries like Taylor's Target edition of Lover.

4. Taylor's after party dress gave me overexposed-starlet vibes, and I for some reason thought of Mariah Carey, I think because she wears white faux fur coats and wraps a lot, including this one on her redemption NYE performance (worn over a nude dress with silver crystals to boot). I also found a slip dress with appliques:

Mariah spoke in 2018 about her struggle with Bipolar 2, saying to People:

I found it interesting that she said that she wondered if she had a sleep disorder since Taylor has spoken about insomnia and this album is ... midnights.

To me, Mariah is very much a misunderstood public figure and one of the first people who springs to mind when I think of a woman in Hollywood advocating for bipolar awareness.

Later on in the piece she elaborates that she was able to come out of dark times by surrounding herself with supportive people and making music again.

Amendment:

Taylor's gold dress strikes me in that it has a mirrorball effect but also looks like she's being chained by money.

Out and about | New York City, NY | January 10, 2024

Little Lies 'Sweet Jane Olive Crushed Mini' - £58.00

Me asking myself how I’m supposed to live through the remainder of 2024 when we are officially 11 days in and 3 greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen outfits deep. Please hold me in your thoughts.

There’s almost a ballerina quality to this crushed velvet dress - from the soft material to the rounded scoop neckline, and fluttering skirt. Besides the rep-coded nature of its mottled green colour (I could even make the folkmore case for it being very foresty and moss-like) what I love is its sense of familiarity and how it calls back to the skater style dresses and skirts that Taylor has worn and loved throughout her career. This one by a new-to-her Scottish designer.

Worn with: Vivienne Westwood bag and Jimmy Choo x Jean Paul Gaultier boots

She looks so deeply scared and lonely

Something is wrong.

She looks very unhealthy.

"I told people, 'No I just exercise a lot.' and I did exercise a lot but I also wasn't eating."

"I'm coming back a soldier half my weight."

So my reputation as a rock opera with Taylor singing from the perspective of other people (Tom and Karlie) as well as herself....but I now wonder if she originally did this on 1989. Especially when I hear the sing-songy way parts of How You Get the Girl are. Like someone is mocking or faking trying to get you back. And the last line is actually kind of sad and foreboding. Once you pull back the covers a bit, it's an album of someone toxic pulling you back in over and over and you try to leave over and over (Clean.)

People have been saying the vault songs show that Taylor and Harry dated for a longer time than we thought, but frankly it makes more sense if Taylor wrote this about her and Karlie's friendship and covered it up with romantic and occasional sexual imagery to make it more pop. I think she has a public relationship before some albums so people can have someone to head cannon the album being around because that's how we work as a society.

Back to K and T, the Anti-Hero video indicated that T may have actually become friends with K (who appears in her old VSFS poison ivy outfit) during Speak Now era (Taylor is playing the koi guitar.) There was something in the Bejeweled video too that's slipping my mind. Something on the runway. Plus they were pictured at a red carpet during at least Red. So by the time writing 1989 comes around, they would have been friends for longer than she dated her last three boyfriends combined.