Music videos, albums, and even red carpet outfits were inspirations for Swifties to wear to The Eras Tour that hit SoCal for five nights in August 2023. No matter what outfit you wore, you were bound to have the night of your life. It was one of the most successful tours, bringing in $2.2 billion in ticket sales, more than double the previous concert record, which was held by Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour which spanned five years. An average of 72,459 fans flocked to the auditoriums each night, wearing “Speak Now” purple to “Lover” pink. Trading friendship bracelets, singing songs, and seeing Taylor Swift in the flesh—what more could someone ask from the night. Swift’s community has grown so large and wide that everywhere you turn a secret Swiftie is hiding in plain sight.
Jenna Garrow
Second-year student and lacrosse athlete, Jenna Garrow, a 19-year-old Swiftie, was really lucky to have gotten tickets for two different nights. Garrow wore an outfit based on Swift’s red carpet-appearance for the 2021 Grammys. She was also matching Swift’s famous flower-embellished piano that she played her special surprise song on during her tour.
“Even though it was supposed to be a reference to an amazing dress, I also got to match with the piano,” Garrow says.
Sara Leon & Sela Leon
The Hornet’s very own Arts and Culture Editor, Sara Leon, and her younger sister Sela Leon both had a magical time at the Taylor Swift concert wearing outfits based on the sister albums “Evermore” and “Folklore.” “Folklore” had been Swift’s very first folk-based album released amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Sara Leon wore a similar dress Swift wore in the “Willow” music video, which was part of the “Evermore” album.
“I really liked Taylor Swift’s folk music and I wanted to go in a dress that encapsulated the dress she wore in the Willow music video,” Sara Leon says.
The younger half of the duo, Sela Leon, focused on the album, “Folklore,” wearing a beautiful gray dress matching the aesthetic of the album cover.
Sela Leon says, “I absolutely love Folklore, and because Folklore and Evermore are sister albums and since Sara was doing Evermore it just made sense.”
Erica Torres
Long-time student and staff member, Erica Torres, wore a Eras Tour merch to the concert. Torres is a type of person who at first glance doesn’t seem like a Swiftie, but as soon as Swift comes on she knows all the lyrics. Taylor Swift is Torres’ favorite lyricist and her favorite album is 1989.
“I revealed in a ‘Frequency Within’ interview that a song I wrote was inspired by Taylor Swift,” Torres says. “The reactions I got from the hosts were hilarious because they didn’t expect for me to be a Swift fan.”
Taken from the Fall 2023 print issue of Inside Fullerton. Read it here.
