"Dresses are my weakness, seriously"
Jan. 22nd, 2008 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotIn preparation for my latest column, which has developed an ever-expanding flexible deadline now that it's back to online only (otherwise it would have been due five hours ago) I have been posing the all-important question "Why does Taylor Swift only wear dresses? No skirts, no pants, just dresses. And why these particular dresses?" (In a short CMT interview Taylor said, "Dresses are my weakness, seriously," and mentioned that she loves Forever 21 and BCBG, but doesn't go into why.)
I posed this question on Rolling Country, if you want to see what I said (scroll down near the bottom), but actually, the only good analytical Taylor Swift sartorial commentary I found was from a mom of four in Ohio who blogs about raising the kids, one of her little girls having recently become obsessed with Taylor:
Taylor Swift is everything a little girl would appreciate. She's cute, has long blonde hair, wears cool cowgirl boots and has the girliest dresses going.
Dad apparently holds Taylor Swift responsible for creating the mold for little-girl taste such as his daughter's, while mom says that Taylor "can't be blamed for little girls' attraction to frilly dresses, sing songy melodies and all things pretty."
Taylor's most recent object of girl envy is a sparkling guitar. Covered with Swarovski crystals, it was first seen in her most recent video for "Our Song" and made an appearance at the recent Country Music Awards. You can't see it and not notice it.
So, anyway, little girl asks Santa for a Taylor Swift guitar and a Taylor Swift dress, and Santa not only comes through - with little black dress comes a black headband and black gloves like Taylor's - but also a pair of black cowboy boots like Taylor's that the little girl "didn't order." "It took her a minute or two to grasp the concept that they were hers even though she hadn't included them in her list of what her dad has dubbed the Taylor Swift starter stalker kit."
OK, obviously Taylor looks really good in the dresses she chooses, which vary from sundresses to prom dresses, but she also looks good in the one photo I found of her in jeans, and lots of country performers who don't shun the feminine and don't shun dresses (Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Deana Carter, Martina McBride, Kellie Pickler) will sometimes wear jeans or pants and unlike Taylor haven't turned dresses into almost a signature. And Gretchen Wilson, who never wears dresses, looks plenty hot. Gretchen goes more for the working-class sassy broad look, the big-bosomed tough-girl, w/ low-necked blouses and bouncing tits.
Obviously, Gretchen's not going for an upmarket look, but it seems to me that it's too quick and easy to say that Taylor is, or to identify Taylor as a prep. There's something too idiosyncratic about Taylor's look, for one thing. Also, she's accessibly dressy, her style of clothes available at relatively inexpensive knockoff joints like Forever 21. She's not going to be wowing the sk8ers and the emos, but the rednecks and the grits won't necessarily be averse. That's my guess.
I posed this question on Rolling Country, if you want to see what I said (scroll down near the bottom), but actually, the only good analytical Taylor Swift sartorial commentary I found was from a mom of four in Ohio who blogs about raising the kids, one of her little girls having recently become obsessed with Taylor:
Taylor Swift is everything a little girl would appreciate. She's cute, has long blonde hair, wears cool cowgirl boots and has the girliest dresses going.
Dad apparently holds Taylor Swift responsible for creating the mold for little-girl taste such as his daughter's, while mom says that Taylor "can't be blamed for little girls' attraction to frilly dresses, sing songy melodies and all things pretty."
Taylor's most recent object of girl envy is a sparkling guitar. Covered with Swarovski crystals, it was first seen in her most recent video for "Our Song" and made an appearance at the recent Country Music Awards. You can't see it and not notice it.
So, anyway, little girl asks Santa for a Taylor Swift guitar and a Taylor Swift dress, and Santa not only comes through - with little black dress comes a black headband and black gloves like Taylor's - but also a pair of black cowboy boots like Taylor's that the little girl "didn't order." "It took her a minute or two to grasp the concept that they were hers even though she hadn't included them in her list of what her dad has dubbed the Taylor Swift starter stalker kit."
OK, obviously Taylor looks really good in the dresses she chooses, which vary from sundresses to prom dresses, but she also looks good in the one photo I found of her in jeans, and lots of country performers who don't shun the feminine and don't shun dresses (Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Deana Carter, Martina McBride, Kellie Pickler) will sometimes wear jeans or pants and unlike Taylor haven't turned dresses into almost a signature. And Gretchen Wilson, who never wears dresses, looks plenty hot. Gretchen goes more for the working-class sassy broad look, the big-bosomed tough-girl, w/ low-necked blouses and bouncing tits.
Obviously, Gretchen's not going for an upmarket look, but it seems to me that it's too quick and easy to say that Taylor is, or to identify Taylor as a prep. There's something too idiosyncratic about Taylor's look, for one thing. Also, she's accessibly dressy, her style of clothes available at relatively inexpensive knockoff joints like Forever 21. She's not going to be wowing the sk8ers and the emos, but the rednecks and the grits won't necessarily be averse. That's my guess.
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Date: 2008-01-23 01:40 am (UTC)