Lifestyle
Taylor Swift fans mean business with Tortured Poet soap, Eras yarn, Kelce cookies
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.
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
“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.)
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.
Lifestyle
Is Jerry Seinfeld's 'Unfrosted' a tasty treat, or just a stale old standby? : Pop Culture Happy Hour
Netflix
The new Netflix film Unfrosted tells a fanciful invented version of the Pop-Tart’s origin. The film was directed and co-written by Jerry Seinfeld, who also stars as a Kellogg’s executive who’s in a race to release a new breakfast idea before their rival beats them to it. Seinfeld is joined by a big cast of funny people including Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, and Hugh Grant. But is the movie as satisfying as the Pop-Tart itself?
Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour
Lifestyle
Do you love your waterbed? We want to hear from you
The waterbed was invented by a San Francisco State University graduate student in 1969, and it quickly captured the American imagination. It soon became a symbol of the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll lifestyle for which the 1970s was famous. It hit the peak of its popularity in 1987, when one in every five mattresses sold in the U.S. was a vinyl bag that could be filled with up to 250 gallons of water. But even as waterbed design has evolved in modern times (more stability, less sloshing), these once-popular mattresses have seen a significant decline.
Are you a holdout who still sleeps on a waterbed in Southern California? We want to hear your story.
Lifestyle
2024 Met Gala Red Carpet: Looks we love
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Monday is the Met Gala, a.k.a. fashion’s biggest night, when superstars from across the celebrity stratosphere throng to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to fete fashion – and each other.
This year’s glitzy gala hosts are Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth; the price of a single ticket to the evening is a reported (and eye-watering) $75,000. The guest list is always kept secret — and there’s a no-phones policy once guests step inside the Met’s doors — but past attendees include multi-hyphenate stars like Beyonce, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian.
The gala raises funds for the Met Museum’s Costume Institute. Unlike the rest of the Met’s curatorial areas, the fashion department must pay for itself — and last year, the gala raised some $22 million.
Each year’s soiree heralds the opening of a new exhibition at the Costume Institute; this year’s display is called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” It features about 250 pieces from the Met’s permanent collection, including garments by Givenchy, Dior and Schiaparelli.
Here are some of the red carpet outfits from tonight:
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Theo Wargo/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
-
News1 week ago
Both sides prepare as Florida's six-week abortion ban is set to take effect Wednesday
-
Politics1 week ago
GOP Rep. Bill Posey won't seek re-election, endorses former Florida Senate President as replacement
-
World1 week ago
Russian forces gained partial control of Donetsk's Ocheretyne town
-
World1 week ago
Zelenskyy warns of Russian nuclear risks on Chernobyl anniversary
-
Politics1 week ago
House Republicans brace for spring legislative sprint with one less GOP vote
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Challengers Movie Review
-
World1 week ago
At least four dead in US after dozens of tornadoes rip through Oklahoma
-
Politics1 week ago
Anti-Trump DA's no-show at debate leaves challenger facing off against empty podium