Lifestyle
Art, Darling
Antwaun Sargent sat nursing a Negroni at Frankies Spuntino, his hang-out in Brooklyn, as he described the perks of his multilayered profession.
“I had dinner with Madonna,” he stated on a current Friday. “Coming of age as a homosexual man in Chicago within the ’90s, you possibly can think about, I used to be excited. I used to be obsessed along with her.”
However inside moments of their encounter final yr, Mr. Sargent hit earth. Pulling out her iPhone, his erstwhile idol proceeded to point out him artworks by Rocco Ritchie, her 21-year-old son with the filmmaker Man Ritchie, regaling him for practically an hour about her hopes for the boy.
“That made issues actual,” Mr. Sargent stated. “Right here was Madonna — a legend, an icon — asking for steering, simply being mother.”
It appears the pop diva had identified the place to show.
Mr. Sargent, 33, a former kindergarten instructor turned artist and curator and vociferous champion of Black artists, had been appointed in January 2021 as a director at Gagosian, the blue-chip mega-gallery, with a mandate to make waves.
His first present, “Social Works,” in 2021, highlighted a multidisciplinary roster together with Theaster Gates, the architect David Adjaye and the filmmaker Linda Goode Bryant, who put in a small, working farm within the gallery area. The present additionally highlighted Mr. Sargent’s mission: to present Black artists, who had been solely haphazardly represented in main art-world establishments, a extremely seen seat on the desk.
It was a mission Mr. Sargent occurred to share with the cultural polymath Virgil Abloh, every bent on conveying a dedication and sense of neighborhood to artists of each stripe — painters, architects, sculptors, musicians and style designers.
So it was all however inevitable that Mr. Abloh, whose work encompassed style, music, structure and artwork, would invite Mr. Sargent to curate his retrospective on the Brooklyn Museum. The present was to be a crowning occasion in his profession — Mr. Abloh died final yr after a protracted sickness — and positively a feather in Mr. Sargent’s cap.
The exhibition, “Figures of Speech,” opens on July 1, with works organized alongside tables, not partitions, displaying artifacts and artworks from Mr. Abloh’s archive. The present departs considerably from its first incarnation, which was on show on the Museum of Up to date Artwork Chicago in 2019 and was curated by Michael Darling.
The Brooklyn set up opens modestly with a 1981 highschool architectural challenge by Mr. Abloh and consists of his early style drawings, artworks and clothes. It goes on to showcase gadgets from influential collaborations with Takashi Murakami, Kanye West and Rem Koolhaas, in addition to items from the designer’s style labels: Pyrex Imaginative and prescient, Off-White and Louis Vuitton males’s put on.
The present’s imposing centerpiece, a country trying schoolhouse clad in pine, is constructed to operate as a real-life classroom providing guests “cheat sheets” classes, in disciplines that embrace industrial design, music, structure and style design. “All the things briefly that Virgil touched,” Mr. Sargent stated. The construction will occupy 1,400 sq. ft of the museum’s Nice Corridor.
Sure, it takes up area and that’s the level. “House is the thread that connects all of the work I do,” Mr. Sargent stated. House can connote energy, he stated. “The query is: ‘What are you going to do with that area?’”
Remembering Virgil Abloh (1980-2021)
The barrier-breaking Black designer whose ascent within the luxurious business modified what was attainable in style, died on Nov. 28, 2021. He was 41.
If an artist is hoping merely to advance himself, “I’ve little interest in that,” Mr. Sargent stated. “However if you’re taking on area to create extra space for different folks, for different Black artists, I’ve a profound curiosity in that.”
Taking Up House
Mr. Sargent himself means to take up extensive swaths of individuals’s consciousness. He writes prolifically and has revealed important essays in The New York Instances and The New Yorker, amongst different locations. Final yr he served as a visitor editor of Artwork in America, turning the journal’s new expertise subject in Might right into a platform for Black critics, painters and photographers. He has revealed a collection of home catalogs — zines, he calls them — at Gagosian.
“He has an excellent sort of work ethic and is a crew participant,” Larry Gagosian stated. “He deserves the eye he’s been getting, however it’s not like he’s wanting a variety of consideration for himself. You’re not working with any individual who’s on a relentless ego journey.”
Mr. Gagosian added: “Numerous galleries have been being attentive to underrepresented artists of shade. However Antwaun actually pushed it rather more successfully.”
Half artwork nerd, half crusader, Mr. Sargent has gathered the works of Black artists in two books, “Younger, Gifted and Black: A New Era of Artists” and “The New Black Vanguard: Pictures Between Artwork and Trend.” He continues to supervise exhibitions and publish important commentary on, amongst others, Kehinde Wiley, Alexandria Smith, Nick Cave and Amanda Williams.
Ms. Williams’s present of vibrantly colourful canvases is on view via July 8 at Park & 75, a Gagosian area, one among 10 initiatives that Mr. Sargent will juggle this summer season.
Ms. Williams’s religion within the curator is longstanding. “Antwaun will see works I’ve performed and sense why I’ve organized issues the best way I’ve, with out us having to speak about it,” she stated. “I belief that he is aware of my eye.” She is however the newest in a string of artists and designers Mr. Sargent sedulously promotes on @sirsargent, his Instagram, with near 100,000 followers.
However it isn’t all grind. Nicely linked in social and style circles, he has popped up within the entrance rows of Thom Browne and Gucci reveals, and dropped in on the Bottega Veneta retailer opening in SoHo final fall. Artwork is his métier, however he takes an inclusive place. He’s a fan of designers like Grace Wales Bonner, Raf Simons at Prada and Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss.
He has modeled for GQ and was lately noticed on the buying and selling flooring of the New York Inventory Alternate, his lean 5-foot-11 body and signature cuffed Russian karakul hat rendering him seen in a crowd that included Kanye West, Megan Thee Stallion and the photographer Tyler Mitchell (a buddy), all craning for a view of the Balenciaga spring 2023 present.
Within the relative calm of Frankies, Mr. Sargent talked quick, fingers tracing arabesques within the air as he reminisced concerning the highlights of his spring social season.
Earlier this yr whereas in Positano on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, he was invited to a celebration in Capri on the fabled Casa Malaparte, a Modernist villa on a excessive cliff and strictly off limits to most of the people.
“I had no thought how I used to be going to get there,” Mr. Sargent stated, noting that he additionally seemed like a “broke” author. He rented a ship and headed uncertainly for a dock marked on Google Maps with nothing however an arrow. “I needed to maintain telling myself, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to this loopy home that nobody will get to go to.’”
He rattled on, reveling like a toddler in his success. The night was eye-opening. “We had dinner on the roof, and there was opera singing,” he stated. “It was additionally the night time that I noticed, ‘Wow, this world — it is not the world I come from.’”
There have been different indelible moments. Arriving in March at an Oscars after-party given by Madonna and her agent, the leisure mogul Man Oseary, Mr. Sargent was star-struck. Sean Combs, Jessica Chastain, Robert De Niro, Kim Kardashian and “nearly each identify you can drop, they have been there,” he stated. Even the waiters have been tarted up, he stated, “carrying blond wigs like Madonna.”
He rocked with the gang, transferring on to a celebration given by Beyoncé and Jay-Z however exiting promptly at daybreak to board a flight to New York. He was not about to overlook his assembly that day with the artist Rick Lowe.
Beguiled by Artwork
Mr. Sargent cultivated his fierce sense of dedication early on. A Chicago native, he grew up within the notoriously blighted Cabrini-Inexperienced Properties, which have since been razed. “You realize what that situation was,” he stated coolly. “You realize frankly that lots of people by no means made it out of there.”
That he did he owes partly to his mom, he stated, who despatched him to a Catholic faculty and managed, whereas working at a Walgreens, to subsidize his youthful ambitions.
“We have been under-resourced,” as he put it. However his mom didn’t balk when he requested to affix a scholar trade program in Germany, reassuring him merely, “we’ll determine it out.”
Bent on a profession in overseas service, he entered Georgetown College in 2007, volunteered for the Obama marketing campaign and served as an intern with Hillary Clinton earlier than accepting a put up with Educate for America, assigned to show studying and writing to a classroom of 30 rambunctious 4- and 5-year-olds in Brooklyn.
“I used to be getting up at 5:45 day by day to take the C practice to East New York, educating by day and writing, partying, doing all these issues {that a} 21-year-old does by night time,” he stated. He was beguiled by the artwork world, making gallery rounds together with his buddy and housemate JiaJia Fei, a digital strategist for the humanities.
“We went to each attainable present, to each occasion, to no matter was taking place,” Mr. Sargent stated. “Once I’m fascinated, I would like to fulfill everybody. I must learn every part.”
He decided to contribute in a roundabout way. “Writing grew to become that method,” he stated.
He was shaken at first. “No one likes to face a clean display screen,” he stated. However neither was educating a stroll within the park.
“This was not some tony Higher East Aspect situation,” he stated. “You needed to actually imagine in these youngsters, to help them.” Youngsters, like artists, he got here to be taught, “can sniff out a foul thought. They’re the hardest critics. However if you’re there for them, they realize it.”
He’s nicely conscious that the artwork world might not show as steadfast. “We’ve had moments the place Black artists are ascendant within the tradition, after which a number of years later, they’re gone,” he stated. “With none structural modifications from establishments, what you’ve is style, a pattern.”
He raced to maintain up together with his ideas, phrases darting in a fusillade. “I wish to be sure that, yeah, yeah, yeah, that this present enthusiasm for artists of shade is not only a second,” he stated.
“For me, it’s about not being the director at a gallery or the curator at a museum however about determining methods to have corporations put money into inventive communities. It’s about writing, making exhibitions — all these other ways of preserving the door open for folks of shade, pushing folks via.”
Earnest however not solemn, Mr. Sargent paused midstream to discipline a textual content from his buddy, Mr. Mitchell, who wished his opinion on some silver eyeglass frames he deliberate to purchase. Mr. Sargent signaled his approval, then seemed up and broke into a smile. “Yeah, I’m spinning a variety of plates within the air,” he stated.
Does all that vitality, sustained partly by vegan protein-and-berry smoothies and a routine of biking, depart room for a personal life? Not a lot, it appears. He shares an house within the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn with Ms. Fei, who is commonly photographed with him at artwork world gatherings.
“We used to say that we’re every others’ selfies,” Mr. Sargent stated.
They return a dozen years. The house is giant sufficient that one of many rooms doubles as a walk-in closet as a result of, Mr. Sargent stated, with out a hint of embarrassment, “we now have so many garments.”
He remembers these years as a string of sketchily improvised celebrations. “In our 20s, we’d throw these loopy events in our yard,” he stated. There have been impromptu mini movie festivals. “We’d have our associates carry blankets and challenge films onto the wall.”
His schedule lately leaves little time for entertaining, a lot much less romance. He lately ended a three-year relationship with a efficiency artist. “It’s exhausting in a relationship to seek out steadiness, particularly if you’re in a hyper-productive second in your profession,” he stated. “Proper now I’m considering it is likely to be good to have that second to give attention to work.”
Nonetheless, he was due for a relaxation. About to depart for a protracted weekend at GoldenEye, a luxurious resort on the northern coast of Jamaica, he betrayed a contact of tension.
Disconnecting? Nicely, that was going to be an experiment. “I’ve by no means taken trip, not even for 4 days,” he stated. “I’m afraid to remain for much longer.
“Already, I’m considering, ‘Oh my God, what if I get bored?’”
Jon Bon Jovi at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., in 2013.
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Jon Bon Jovi at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., in 2013.
David Bergman/Hulu
Hulu’s docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, spends a lot of time building up the Bon Jovi legend — exploring the band’s almost unbelievable 40-plus-year run from playing hardscrabble rock clubs in New Jersey to earning platinum albums and entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
But what moved me most in the four-part series was something more revealing: its close look at the struggle by lead singer Jon Bon Jovi to overcome vocal problems which nearly led him to quit the band.
Footage of the singer croaking through vocal exercises, undergoing laser treatments, enduring acupuncture and finally turning to surgery is sprinkled throughout the series, which toggles back and forth between his problems in 2022 and a chronological story of the band’s triumphs and tragedies from its earliest days.
Refusing to be Fat Elvis
Jon Bon Jovi was interviewed for Thank You, Goodnight.
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Jon Bon Jovi was interviewed for Thank You, Goodnight.
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Through it all, a question hangs: Will Bon Jovi ever recover enough vocal strength to lead a 40th anniversary tour?
“If I can’t be the very best I can be, I’m out,” he tells the cameras, still looking a bit boyish despite his voluminous gray hair at age 62. “I’m not here to drag down the legacy, I’m not here for the ‘Where are they now?’ tour … I’m not ever gonna be the Fat Elvis … That ain’t happening.”
Filmmaker Gotham Chopra — who has also directed docuseries about his father, spiritualist Deepak Chopra, and star quarterback Tom Brady — digs deeply into the band’s history, aided by boatloads of pictures, video footage and early recordings provided by the group.
Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora in Thank You, Goodnight
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Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora in Thank You, Goodnight
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Chopra gets folks from the group’s tight inner circle to speak up, including former manager Doc McGhee and guitarist Richie Sambora, who quit the band in 2013. (“Are we telling the truth, or are we going to lie, what are we going to do?” Sambora cracks to his offscreen interviewer. “Let’s figure it out.”)
But anyone expecting gossipy dish will walk away disappointed. Even major scandals in the band’s history are handled with care, including the firing of founding bassist Alec John Such in 1994 (and the admission that his replacement, Hugh McDonald, already had been secretly playing bass parts on their albums for years), drummer Tico Torres’ stint in addiction treatment and Sambora’s decision to quit midway through a tour in 2013, with no notice to bandmates he had performed alongside for 30 years.
Sambora’s explanation: When issues with substance use and family problems led him to miss recording sessions, Bon Jovi got producer John Shanks to play more guitar on their 2013 record What About Now. And Sambora was hurt.
“[Bon Jovi] had the whole thing kinda planned out,” Sambora says, “which basically was telling me, um, ‘I can do it without you.’”
Building a band on rock anthems
Jon Bon Jovi with guitarist Phil X.
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Jon Bon Jovi with guitarist Phil X.
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The docuseries shows how young New Jersey native John Bongiovi turned a job as a gofer at legendary recording studio The Power Station – owned by a cousin — into a recording of his first hit in the early 1980s, Runaway. His song eventually caught the ear of another little-known artist from New Jersey called Bruce Springsteen.
“The first demo I got of Jon’s was a good song,” says Springsteen, a longtime friend of Bon Jovi. “I mean, Jon’s great talent is these big, powerful pop rock choruses that just demand to be sung by, you know, 20,000 people in an arena.”
Thank You, Goodnight shows the band really took off by honing those rock anthems with songwriter Desmond Child, while simultaneously developing videos that showcased their status as a fun, rollicking live band. Hits like You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin’ on a Prayer and Wanted: Dead or Alive made them MTV darlings and rock superstars.
Through it all, the singer and bandleader is shown as the group’s visionary and spark plug, open about how strategically he pushed the band to write hit songs and positioned them for commercial success.
“It wasn’t as though I woke up one morning and was the best singer in the school, or on the block, or in my house,” he tells the camera, laughing. “I just had a desire and a work ethic that was always the driving force.”
I saw that dynamic up close in the mid-1990s when I worked as a music critic in New Jersey, spending time with Jon Bon Jovi and the band. Back then, his mother ran the group’s fan club and was always trying to convince the local rock critic to write about her superstar son – I was fascinated by how the band shrugged off criticisms of being uncool and survived changing musical trends, led by a frontman who worked hard to stay grounded.
Bon Jovi was always gracious and willing to talk; he even introduced me to then-New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman at one of his legendary Christmas charity concerts. (And in a crazy coincidence, the band’s backup singer Everett Bradley is an old friend from college.)
I think the docuseries captures Bon Jovi’s skill at leading the group through challenges musical and otherwise — from metal’s slow fade off the pop charts to the rise of grunge rock — something the singer rarely gets credit for achieving.
Still, much of Thank You, Goodnight feels like an extended celebration of the band and its charismatic frontman, leavened by his earnest effort to regain control of his voice. If you’re not a Bon Jovi fan, four episodes of this story may feel like a bit much (I’d recommend at least watching the first and last episodes.)
More than anything, the docuseries feels like an extended argument for something Bon Jovi has struggled to achieve, even amid million selling records and top-grossing concert tours – respect as a legendary rock band.
The audio and digital versions of this story were edited by Jennifer Vanasco.
As a newly single woman in my 50s in Los Angeles, I was terrified. I’d been married so long that the last time I’d heard the words “sexy” and “hot” was when I’d ordered sea bass in a spicy shiitake broth. I hadn’t been nipped, tucked, suctioned, filled or augmented. I figured I stood a better chance of being hit by lightning than hit on by a good-looking guy.
Understandably my girlfriends were getting weary of my “I’m going to die alone” attitude so they dragged me out to have some fun, which I assumed meant a glass of wine and a nice cheese plate, not shots of tequila in a trendy nightclub in Westlake. The last time I was in a club I was doing the Hammer Dance in parachute pants! I was in over my head. What if no one checked me out or asked me to dance. My self-esteem was already so low that I considered spending the rest of the year in bed. Maybe I just needed 11 months to reevaluate my Sleep Number and catch up on “The Bachelor.”
As it turned out, guys don’t ask you to dance anymore. They just move in on you. One guy moved in so close, it was less about dancing and more about grinding. I joked that in some countries, we were now officially married.
He didn’t get the joke, and I was not about to stay with a man with no sense of humor. I was starting to enjoy myself when fate reminded me that I was newly separated and supposed to be miserable and made me trip on an unseen step. I fell. Hard. On a concrete floor.
I was mortified. I was sure people were laughing at me, but instead, they just stepped over me on the way to the bar. Alcohol trumps everything. I got up, dusted off my pride and went back on the dance floor. I was in the middle of “raising the roof” when a pocket-sized man approached me and asked if I liked his friend. At first, I thought he was referring to his penis in the most unimaginative way, but then he gestured behind me to his actual friend — a thirtysomething tall, dark and gorgeous man. And me definitely likey!
He introduced himself in broken English as Daniel. He had just moved to Southern California from Italy to be a chef at a local hot spot. I felt like I was stepping into the pages of a Harlequin romance. Pretty soon he’d be shirtless on a horse, and I’d be behind him, holding his abs so I didn’t fall. Like I really needed a reason.
He suggested we go back to his apartment for Prosecco and more dancing, and I did what any mid-50s woman would in my situation: I threw all reason, good sense and safety concerns to the wind and blurted “Yes, God, yes!”
Daniel asked if I had a friend who could join us because the pocket-sized man had ironically big pockets and would pick up our tab and drive us in his fancy SUV. I knew convincing a girlfriend wouldn’t be easy, so I went for the jugular. I used guilt. I’d been miserable for months going on years. Did my friends really want to deny me one night of a superficial, meaningless lust connection?
After a speedy ride where I sat on my one good butt cheek, the four of us arrived at Daniel’s apartment in Agoura Hills. He popped open some bubbly and made a toast that was seductive and unintelligible, but I was suddenly in my head.
What was I doing? I wasn’t ready for sex. I wouldn’t even get naked in front of a mirror! And what about the bump on my butt from the fall that was swelling by the minute? Would it be too conspicuous if I sat on a bag of ice or frozen peas? Before I could get to the freezer, Daniel pulled me and my spiraling in for a slow dance and he started singing to me in Italian. It was corny, off-key and incredibly romantic. My girlfriend, Shauna, seeing where this might go, asked Daniel’s friend to drive her home. (That is a comedy of errors for a whole other essay.)
I didn’t say goodbye. I was too focused on Daniel’s roaming hands that were headed south for warmer regions. I yelped as he touched the bruised cheek then quickly recovered with a flirty laugh. Encouraged by my fake flirty laugh, he started undoing the buttons on my jeans. I stopped him and moved his hands up. He moved them down. I moved them up. I wondered if you could have sex with your clothes on. It had been a minute since I’d had sex with someone new. Maybe things had changed.
He took my hand and led me to the bedroom. I looked at the bed and briefly wondered if the sheets were clean. As a mom, I could get stains out of anything. My domestic reverie was cut short as he took off his shirt. I looked at his ridiculous body and I knew it was my turn. I also knew I wasn’t ready. I got into bed fully clothed, and he crawled in next to me. He pulled me in and kissed me, and I forgot all about the divorce, the heartache and the fear of being alone. I was making out with a hot Italian guy with a hematoma on my butt that was now the size of a ping-pong ball, and it was exactly what I needed. I felt hotter and sexier than any sea bass, but most important, I felt hopeful. Maybe I was going to be OK after all.
The author is a Golden Globe-winning TV comedy writer from England. She lives in Woodland Hills, but her adventures happen everywhere. She’s on Instagram: @mariaannebrown
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
Sparta Candle Co. soaps inspired by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and The Tortured Poets Department album.
Sparta Candle Co.
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Sparta Candle Co.
Sparta Candle Co. soaps inspired by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and The Tortured Poets Department album.
Sparta Candle Co.
The official Taylor Swift online store is chockablock with earrings, hoodies, vinyl and other merchandise promoting the star’s latest record-breaking album, The Tortured Poets Department.
But there’s also a parallel industry devoted to selling crafty products inspired by Swift’s music and style — and it’s thriving.
“We’ve made soaps inspired by all of Taylor Swift’s albums. So of course we’re excited to introduce this one: Tortured Poet!” says Duane Swenk in a TikTok video. It’s been up for about a week, and has already been viewed more than 300,000 times.
Swenk is the spokesperson for his family-run soap and candle business, the Sparta Candle Co. — and a big Swiftie. Wearing a beard, beret and The Tortured Poets Department T-shirt, he’s showing off a soap in the shape of a cup of Earl Grey tea. It comes with a detachable saucer.
“This soap has notes of black tea, bergamot and lemon,” Swenk goes on to say in the video. “It’s a perfectly moody scent to pair with Taylor’s incredible new album.”
Months before The Tortured Poets Department dropped, Duane Swenk’s daughter, Jennifer Swenk — who serves as the Sparta Candle Co.’s CEO and founder and is also a devoted Taylor Swift fan — was hunting for hints about it to turn into potential product concepts. When she browsed through the upcoming song titles, she saw one called “So Long, London.”
Jennifer Swenk said the combination of London and the overall poetry theme of the album gave her the idea for the soapy tea cup.
“I felt like poetry goes hand in hand with having a cup of tea,” she said.
Music and style inspire shapes, scents and colors
Taylor Swift’s music evokes fanciful forms and scents for Jennifer Swenk. But Ashleigh Kiser is thinking in colors. Her company, Sewrella Yarn, has created a line inspired by Swift’s Eras tour, in which the pop star performs songs from her entire catalog.
“Something that is more of a love song, like the Lover era, those were very light, very pastel, very kind of ethereal colors,” said Kiser of matching Swift’s hits with yarn hues. “While the Evermore era got darker, more moody, more complicated colors.”
The company also just released a yarn collection based on The Tortured Poets Department.
The Tortured Poets Department yarn collection from Sewrella Yarn.
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The Tortured Poets Department yarn collection from Sewrella Yarn.
Sewrella Yarn
Kiser said she loves the way Swift inspires a sort of virtuous circle of creativity in fans.
“There were customers of ours who were buying the yarn that was inspired by the tour. And then they were going and knitting a sweater or a top or whatever their project was. And then they were then wearing that to Eras tour concerts,” Kiser said. “So it’s like the music informs the yarn which informs the project. And it just keeps going.”
Communal feeling
This communal aspect of creating merchandise inspired by Swift appeals strongly to baker Emily Henegar. The Nashville, Tenn.-based entrepreneur’s one-woman business, Cookie in the Kitchen, makes intricately decorated cookies incorporating details from Swift’s work and life.
She said she sometimes incorporates other artists’ designs into her own. For example, Henegar said she decorated a cookie with an image she found on social media of a beanie hat a fan made for Swift, which the star then wore to a football game.
Cookie in the Kitchen’s cookie collection riffing on Taylor Swift’s relationship with football player Travis Kelce.
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Cookie in the Kitchen
Cookie in the Kitchen’s cookie collection riffing on Taylor Swift’s relationship with football player Travis Kelce.
Cookie in the Kitchen
“I’m just scrolling Instagram, getting to pull inspiration from many different places,” said Henegar.
Henegar said she doesn’t mind when other makers incorporate her artistry into their own Swift-inspired products. “It’s nice if they can just credit me on their Instagram posts,” she said.
While Cookie in the Kitchen, Sparta Candle Co. and Sewrella Yarn mostly serve customers through their websites and/or brick-and-mortar stores, many small businesses focusing on Taylor Swift-oriented products look to Etsy and other arts ands crafts-focused online marketplaces to reach fans.
“I mean, talk about bringing people together, and talk about really amplifying creativity,” said Etsy trend expert Dayna Isom Johnson of Swift’s impact on the platform.
Johnson said entrepreneurs on Etsy aren’t just coming up with sales concepts ahead of the artist’s album releases and tour dates. They’re also quickly responding to what Swift sings, says and wears.
For instance, Swift’s lyric “So make the friendship bracelets” in her 2022 song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” created an unprecedented demand for friendship bracelets on Etsy. (According to company data, while Swift was touring across the U.S. in 2023, it saw a 22,313% increase in searches for concert-inspired friendship bracelets.)
A selection of Taylor Swift-oriented friendship bracelets on Etsy.
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A selection of Taylor Swift-oriented friendship bracelets on Etsy.
CustomBraceletWorld/Etsy
Etsy witnessed a similar spike in searches after Swift wore an unusual choker necklace at this year’s Grammys.
And this latest album, with its references to poetry — “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith” — has been turning Swifties into wannabe poets; suddenly everyone wants a blank journal.
“We’ve seen a 727% increase in searches on Etsy for poetry-related items,” Johnson said.
Swift’s response to fans’ creativity
Swift herself seems to embrace her fans’ creativity. She’s been known to send notes and even homemade gifts to creative super-fans.
“They are constantly just showing me love in different ways,” she said in a 2012 video for VEVO music network. “And I really appreciate it.”
One small business owner making Swift-themed T-shirts and other items told NPR they have had products taken down from online marketplaces for possible copyright infringement.
But University of Pennsylvania law professor Jennifer Rothman said she is not aware of Swift launching lawsuits against small entrepreneurs, and she said that Swift’s overall openness toward fan-based creativity makes good business sense.
“Taylor Swift only benefits, I think, from having all this fan enthusiasm,” Rothman said.
The music industry trade publication Pollstar estimates Swift grossed close to $200 million in authorized merchandise sales last year. Rothman said most of these small scale, highly creative riffs on the artist’s life and work often don’t significantly impinge upon Swift’s brand or bottom line.
“If anything, they boost it by boosting the positive feelings around her,” Rothman said. “The fans still want the official merchandise and will wait in line for hours and hours to get it.”
Jennifer Vanasco edited the audio and digital versions of this story.
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