Taylor Swift’s £58 dress choice leaves Scottish designer ‘gobsmacked’

Taylor Swift has filled a blank space in her wardrobe with a £58 dress from a Scottish fashion house, leaving its owner “gobsmacked”.

Swift was spotted wearing the olive-green mini dress in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday while out for dinner with the actors Blake Lively and Zoë Kravitz at the pizzeria Lucali.

The Scottish fashion designer and co-founder of the Perth-based Little Lies, Jade Robertson, told the Times: “[I was] just completely gobsmacked at first.”

“We had no idea she even had the dress,” she added.

“I woke up to WhatsApps from one of our design team. Her brother is a mega-Swiftie, and on his 6am Twitter scroll this morning he immediately spotted the dress and was like: oh my God.

“He sent it to his sister who then forwarded it to me … So that’s how we found out.”

When she checked the stock of the dress on Thursday morning, it had already sold out.

Little Lies staff found the order but it was not made in Swift’s name. They theorised it was most likely made in secret by the singer herself or a member of her team.

Robertson said the production run of the dress would be limited to “a few hundred” and the price “will stay exactly the same”.

She is not a massive fan of Swift but she told the Times she “absolutely appreciates” her music. “I’m a lot more of a 70s classic rock girl. Little Lies is obviously a Fleetwood Mac song,” she said. “My auntie was in a band in the 70s, and I grew up listening to her tell stories about being at parties with Led Zeppelin and the Beatles.”

“I do love her music too, but what I really love is that she’s worn this in a very Stevie Nicks way,” Robertson added.

Despite her multimillion-dollar fortune, Swift has been known to rock wallet-friendly items in the past. She seemingly wore a red knit dress that can be bought for $98 (£77) while out with the Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner last September. Last June she was spotted wearing what looked like a body suit that is now on sale for $48.

Last week, the New York Times was criticised after publishing a piece speculating about Swift’s sexuality. Speaking to CNN anonymously, a member of Swift’s team attributed the decision to publish the op-ed to sexism and ethical lapses.

“Because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics,” the person said. “This article wouldn’t have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans.”

Swift is set to perform in Edinburgh this June for three nights as part of the Eras Tour. It will be her first set of performances in the UK as part of the tour. She has 10 scheduled tour dates in the UK this year, also performing in Liverpool, Cardiff and London.

Swift took the second and third spots on 2023’s UK album chart despite neither of the albums having been originally released last year. The figures from the British Phonographic Industry show that Swift’s Midnights, released in 2022, was the second most commercially successful album in the UK last year, followed by 1989 (Taylor’s Version), a rerecording of her 2014 album of the same name, at No 3.