Every preteen who lived in the mid to late 2000’s knows that their iPod playlists revolved around Taylor Swift. Although it doesn’t seem like it was too long ago when she was a country pop teen that got her first hit on the charts, it has been ten years since the world was first introduced to Taylor Swift. Just as her music as changed, her style has evolved monumentally. I believe her style has changed the most due to her social set. Her posse of models and actresses including Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Hailee Steinfeld, and Blake Lively has changed her look from cutesy to edgy. The preteen fans of Taylor Swift in 2006 would not recognize the platinum-haired Taylor Swift of 2016.
During her first years of celebrity of status, Swift wore more boho style clothing with a country flair, along with the signature flare jeans of the mid-2000’s. Her hair was always long and wavy, ready to flip back against her guitar. She looked like a slightly more mature Hannah Montana.
When she reached age 20, Swift became sleeker. Her style become more refined and she slowly started leaving her country roots behind. Her hair was still wavy and long but she wasn’t afraid to put it up. Like most celebrities who became famous in their youth, she was trying to leave her past reputation behind. She wanted to grow up and have the world accept her as an adult.
Swift’s style did not reach maturity until around 2012. She straightened her hair and added bangs. Her outfit choices became less 
cutesy and more modern and refined. She wore a sleek white gown with gold accents to the 2012 Country Music Awards with a smoky hair, light lips, and just slightly curled hair. She looked like an adult who knew what she wanted, the power she had, and what she was going to do with it. In my eyes, the white pant suit she wore to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2012 officially showed how her style had evolved. 2006 Taylor Swift would not have rocked that outfit.
One of the most memorable outfits of her awards show appearances was the blue Elie Saab dress at the 2015 Grammys. In short, she looked like a mermaid. Her hair was short with angled layers, and she had glamorous yet simple makeup. The dress had unique shoulder cuts and was short in the front but then had a ball gown that came around from the back to the sides that did not completely cover her front so that you could see her legs that go on for days. She finished the look with a pop of color: bright magenta shoes, a look she never would have thought of in her teens.
And in 2016, Swift continues to change like a chameleon. She debuted her new platinum look at the 
2016 Met Gala with a dark plum lip, an edgy, short metallic dress with sexy cutouts and black leather cutouts with black leather gladiator stilettos that laced all the way up her calves. It was the polar opposite of the feminine princess gowns she wore in the 2000s. Loyal Swifties may bemoan her transition away from cutesy femininity, but she’s a grown woman now, and her style has developed as she has aged. She’s not afraid to rock edgy new looks because she’s comfortable in her own skin, which after all is the best look you can have.
Who knows what will come of 2017.
-Allison Walter
Images Courtesy of: Consumer Buzz, Pinterest, Tom and Lorenzo, and Elle.
