Travis Kelce: Fashion Influencer
Like it or not, the zeitgeist has spoken.
Before today’s story: I hope you’ll take a minute to peruse the Authors for Voices of Color charity auction. I contributed a signed copy of ANNA: The Biography, and 30-minute Zoom AMA; plus, there are loads of other great items to bid on. Money raised goes towards the WNDB (We Need Diverse Books) Books Save Lives program, which combats book bans, internship grants for college students underrepresented in publishing, and professional development for diverse publishing industry employees. Bidding closes Tuesday, October 3 at 9 PM.
Familiarizing myself with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was in no way on my to-do list prior to Taylor Swift showing up to his game around a week ago. Now, I view content about him daily. DAILY. It’s too much football content, and it’s become abundantly clear over the past week that at tea time, everybody (Swift fans) does not agree.
The public nature of whatever relationship there is between Kelce and Swift seems as deliberate as Kim Kardashian. Celebrities don’t typically go to professional sporting events — especially with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, as Swift did at last night’s Chiefs vs. Jets game — for the purposes of blending in and having a nice anonymous time. Swift sitting in the box with her celebrity besties was the American equivalent of the British royals packed together on a balcony. The media has been absolutely saturated with the photos and play-by-plays of the hangout (the real game, if you ask me). Lip-reading analysis has been trickling out ever since.
This much attention means that Kelce, now the sole tight end I can name and recognize, has practically overnight been rebirthed as a fashion influencer. If Gucci could rewind three months and vomit money at Kelce and Swift for the new luggage-oriented Ancora campaign featuring the charisma-less romance of Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny, they most certainly would. The Swelce mania has been so intense that you probably forgot that was the famous couple about whom you were supposed to feel some sense of intrigue, to say nothing of Kylie and Timothée. Time for Kris Jenner to go back to the drawing board.
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Swift’s Eras Tour has already been credited with generating $5 billion in consumer spending, and now, intentionally or not, she’s transferring a bit of that economic might to Kelce, like white deodorant to a dark top. Sales of Kelce merch (he wears no. 87) were up 400 percent, a spokesperson for sportswear fan apparel company Fanatics told the Associated Press.
The media coverage she’s created around Kelce in mere weeks has been astonishing. It’s not just a bonanza for Us Weekly and BuzzFeed, which is expected. The coverage of Swelce in the fashion press has been equally, if not more, intense than its coverage of her wardrobe on the Eras Tour, which featured custom looks from the world’s most celebrated and influential designers.
Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Women’s Wear Daily have been writing and Instagramming about Swelce as though they’re Amal Clooney at a charity gala. Vogue’s write-up of her first game appearance may also mark the outlet’s inaugural reportage on ranch dressing: “She [Swift] cheered him [Kelce] on alongside his mother, and enjoyed chicken with ketchup and ‘seemingly ranch,’ as one fan outlet reported.” Harper’s Bazaar is already plying the Google Gods with a “Full Relationship Timeline,” which, given this all started in mid-September, is impressively already more than a thousand words long. And six days ago, WWD published “Travis Kelce’s Style Evolution,” built on all of five photos of the man. To the arsenals of Travis Kelce facts our brains may or may not be storing against our wills, we can now add that in 2018, he attended the Kids’ Choice Awards wearing tight ripped jeans and a Moschino teddy bear T-shirt. (In keeping with the whole, “male celebrities can look like crap while their girlfriends have to super-dress up” conversation, his then-romantic partner Kayla Nicole was at his side wearing a cocktail dress and stilettos.)
The New York Times “Styles” section has run two Swelce stories in the span of about a week. First, the paper reported on the white-and-blue denim set Kelce wore to the stadium for the Chiefs vs. Bears game Swift attended, designed by KidSuper’s Colm Dillane:
The image of Mr. Kelce and Ms. Swift together quickly went viral and sparked immediate interest in Mr. Kelce’s outfit.
Dillane explained that the outfit had been called the “Bedroom Painting” denim set. But once his team saw the image, they decided to change it to something Swift-related, and slapped “1989” at the beginning so that it was the “1989 Bedroom Painting” set. Dillane told the paper that once they changed the name, he tweeted it, “and then it just went so stupidly viral.”
The Times also published a special report on the Swiftification of Sunday night’s Jets vs. Chiefs game, which saw increased ticket sales apparently as a result of Swift’s expected attendance. The paper spoke to Swifties on the ground, many of whom dressed up in special Swelce-inspired attire. These included 26-year-old Brooklyn-based fashion designer Caye Schnackel, who attended with her boyfriend and told the Times, “I’m just so obsessed with Travis now.”
Kelce is poised to capitalize on that obsession. In late May, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that he had signed with CAA for off-field representation. “When Travis joined the NFL as a rookie, it was clear to us that he had star potential both on and off the field. We have a shared vision of Travis not only as a transcendent athlete, but also as a media and entertainment powerhouse,” his managers Aaron and André Eanes said at the time. Kelce had previously hosted Saturday Night Live along with other programming for ABC, ESPN, and Disney XD. He often co-hosts his brother (also an NFL player, don’t make me learn about him too!) Jason’s podcast New Heights. And he had started a music festival called Kelce Jams in Kansas City, where his favorite acts like Machine Gun Kelley performed, explaining to THR at the time, “I talk a lot about fighting for your right to party. I’ve been saying that for a while now.”
But he’s not just a man who can talk real good into a mic; his public image comes complete with style bona fides. His Instagram feed is littered with influencer-y photos of him wearing clothes. He’s tagged brands like Lanvin and Amiri, suggesting he didn’t have to buy the stuff and may have even been paid to wear it. And he’s already embraced the looser silhouette that would likely terrify 99 percent of menswear consumers in America.
He’s also appeared on Sports Illustrated’s “Fashionable 50” and launched his own clothing line, Tru Kolors. Kelce explains on the Tru Kolors website, which sells “Klassic” sweatpants and hoodies for under $100, “I think colors are a unique way to connect people and an amazing way to express yourself.” Every single item on the website appears to be sold out, and I bet Dior men’s designer Kim Jones is already salivating at a potential collab. However, based on the forensic evidence, I think we can all agree that Kelce is a loud luxury kind of guy and ought to run headlong into the arms of Donatella Versace.
Only she might have to fend off Brioni or another Kering brand, because Kering chief François-Henri Pinault just bought Kelce’s agency CAA. And as stated, they plan to put him to work.
Let it be noted for the record — meaning, all Swifties on the internet — that I have just one thing against Travis Kelce at this juncture: that he robbed Jets fan Jeremy Strong aka Succession’s Kendall Roy, who also attended Sunday night’s game, of his moment in the sun. Thank you to the Jets social media manager for not letting this whisper of quiet luxury pass us all by.
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But what of the outfits? I wasn’t a fan of Taylor’s bedazzled shorts (even if they were designer) and knee high boots. And why was Blake Lively wearing a strapless tube top to a football game. The looks were all over the place.
I googled 'Swelce' and the first hit was a Wikipedia entry for an old english word, used (among other things) as an expletive for "like, as it were". I don't know how "like, as it were" is an expletive, but maybe this is prescient, in terms of the longevity of the relationship... only (limited) time will tell...