This past weekend, 90,000 people swarmed Melbourne as Taylor Swift played her biggest show of the Eras Tour yet. Dressed as Swift throughout the years, people flew across state lines and internationally to show off their Junior Jewels T-shirts; their heart-shaped sunglasses; their endless, colourfully personalised bracelets. They flocked to the MCG, spending thousands of dollars, either for tickets, for merch, or for some other bizarre combination of fan-crazed, Swiftie must-haves. But the most common costume choice was, strangely, the pink – or sometimes white – plastic cowboy hat. Advertisem*nt
Taylor Swift cowboy hats? No. These are for the football fans. Obviously.
I found no further evidence that Melbourne Victory supporters or players wear cowboy hats – but there’s another cultural icon who does – one who’s much more relevant to the Swift universe.This brings me to my third theory, the one I believe deepest in my heart: people have entirely forgotten the difference between Taylor Swift and Barbie.
Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times
We are being asked to believe that this costume is inspired by the Taylor Swift debut, and…not Barbie.When I watched crowds line up in pink costumes, I felt a distinct wave of deja vu: didn’t we just do this? Like six months ago?
James Gourley/Getty Images
Maybe Taylor was never huge on mixing western attire with hot pink, but Margot Robbie as Barbie definitely was: she famously wore a pink cowgirl outfit with a white hat nearly identical to ones sold outside the concert. More to the point, aren’t they a little bit the same, anyway?Pop-culture monoliths successfully riding the age of the girl, invoking a hyper-youthful femme aesthetic as a palatable assertion against the patriarchy? And also…, they’re both blonde. It’s just a theory. But I think there’s something there.Anyway, I have nothing against the cowboy hat, whatever its true origin may be. I think “Cardigan” slaps and Barbie’s fascism line is funny. I can’t wait until the boundaries between all forms of entertainment dissolve into nothingness and we’re left sliding around in a delicious, pink, iridescent soup of universalized girlhood.But even if I didn’t, these things don’t need my approval. They’re happening anyway. Cowboy hats are decidedly in. At least for a certain kind of Taylor Swift-obsessed individual.
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