Congratulations to Taylor Swift, who has managed to induct another of the world’s most famous women into her cabal girl squad. The musician was this week photographed leaving the Argentine restaurant Casa Cruz in London with Cara Delevingne, Lena Dunham, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge–so far so millennial–and one less-expected addition: the supermodel Kate Moss. Andrew Scott was also granted a rare pass into Swift’s inner-circle, a concession perhaps to Men’s Mental Health Week.
Some commentators have chosen to read Swift’s powerful assemblage of celebrities as a retaliation to the news that Matty Healy–an erstwhile flame who is said to have inspired a number of songs on The Tortured Poets Department–proposed to internet It-girl Gabbriette with a black diamond engagement ring. The “dressing for revenge” headlines wrote themselves. Swift was photographed in a damask corset, lace pants and an outsized pinstripe coat–all Stella McCartney (who also linked up with the evening’s posse)–with sanguine Gucci slingbacks and a diminutive Jackie bag. Moss dressed in a predatory and popped-collar skirt suit that would not have looked out of place in a campaign for Tom Ford’s Gucci. She later partied with Sienna Miller and Noel Gallagher at Charlotte Tilbury’s house.
It is in times like these that Swifties become self-appointed fashion sleuths. Was that necklace – a vintage Concord watch reimagined as a choker by Lorraine Schwartz with 300 carats worth of black diamonds – a wink towards Gabriette’s engagement ring? Could it have been a tacit symbol of love lost, as it was during the Edwardian era when wives would strap their husband’s pocket watches around their necks when killed in action? Or was it a tribute to Clara Bow – the American actress who first gave rise to the term “It-girl” some 100 years before Gabriette starred in Charli XCX’s “360” video? It wouldn’t be the first time that Swift’s lore has bled into her wardrobe.