On Tuesday night, Taylor Swift made a much-anticipated endorsement – she’s backing Vice President Harris for president. “She fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Last month, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reposted an AI-generated image of the pop star wearing an Uncle Sam outfit, in which he accepted her seeming endorsement of his campaign. The post appeared on the politician’s Truth Social network. (He’s since denied he knows anything about the images.)

But Swift wrote that this incident conjured up her fears around AI, and spurred her to share her “actual plans for this election as a voter.” Back when Trump posted the AI image, we took a look at the history of celebrity endorsements and their effects. You can read that story here:

Why celebrity endorsements matter

Celebrity endorsements are as much a thing in politics as they are in consumer products.

“Celebrities draw increased engagement, increased attention, and they increase conversation,” said Ashley Spillane, the author of a new study from Harvard’s Kennedy School on celebrity engagement in politics — focusing on civic participation. “And no matter the political party or the candidate, there is a real hunger to be affiliated with the celebrities that can do that.”

Spillane said her research shows you don’t have to be a star as big as Swift to influence voters.

“Some of the other folks with a smaller base were having just as significant an impact because they have an incredibly engaged base of support as well,” she said. 

There’s a long history of big names throwing their weight behind White House hopefuls. It extends back to 1920 when film stars Mary Pickford and Al Jolson endorsed Warren G. Harding.

Frank Sinatra explained his support of future president Ronald Reagan at a fundraising event in Boston in 1979.

“Why do I support Governor Reagan?” Sinatra said. “Because I think he’s the proper man to be President of the United States. Because it’s so screwed up now, we need someone to straighten it out.”

Oprah Winfrey offered her reasons for backing Barack Obama on The Larry King Show in 2007. “What he stands for, what he has proven he can stand for, what he has shown, was worth me going out on a limb for,” Winfrey said.

A 2008 study from Northwestern University assessed the impact of Winfrey’s endorsement of Obama. It showed the media star was responsible for around one million additional votes for the 44th president.

Celebrity endorsements can be tricky

But other research tells a different story.

For instance, a 2010 report from North Carolina State University found celebrity endorsements by George Clooney and Angelina Jolie did not help political candidates.

And having famous people cheerleading for your political campaign isn’t foolproof.

“It could backfire,” said Wharton School of Business professor of neuroscience, psychology, and marketing Michael Platt, the author of a 2023 study on celebrity endorsement. “Maybe it’s a celebrity that you don’t like or is not aligned with you politically.”

There’s also the potential problem of the celebrity being too famous. Platt calls this the “Vampire Effect.”

“They suck up all our attention, right?” he said. “Which means there’s less attention, less processing, that’s given to the candidate that you might be endorsing.”

The rise of fake AI celebrity endorsements

The rise of social media and deep-fakes created by artificial intelligence, such as those of Swift falsely appearing to endorse Trump, is also an issue.

“There have been manipulated celebrity photographs since the beginning of photography, certainly, but the rampant use of AI and its ubiquity are what is new,” said Douglas Mirell, an entertainment lawyer with the Los Angeles firm Greenberg Glusker who works to curb unauthorized uses of AI. “It is so pervasive and so potentially manipulable, that people can’t tell what’s true and what’s not true. So AI really does create a much more serious threat to the fundamental touchstone of democracy, which is truth-telling.”

Mirell said the impact of AI-generated images, on election results remains to be seen.

“When we’re talking about people like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, their endorsements would be potentially very important,” he said. “And that’s why I think everyone really needs to be concerned about this issue.”

As a young aspiring ballerina, I was transfixed by ribbons. Attached just so, winding up the ankle like a vine, tied expertly on the inside of the leg — to me, nothing completed a ballet slipper like a ribbon. I anticipated receiving my ribbons — normally achieved when a dancer reaches Grade 3 in the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus — more than graduating to pointe shoes. When I was finally old enough to accessorize my slippers, I took great care in my ribbon ritual. The ribbons were bubblegum pink when brand new, and I stayed up late, carefully dyeing them in a bath of boiling tea until they reached the correct shade to match my slippers and tights, before sewing them on by hand at the perfect, ergonomic angle. I reveled in the task of learning to tie my ribbons; it felt like an arrival. I was one step closer to looking and feeling like a real ballerina.

In today’s fashion ecosystem, the versatility of a bow is on full display.

Ribbons are easy to romanticize, especially as we exit Brat Summer, where Charli XCX’s “Everything Is Romantic” has served as the sonic partner to the resurgence of ballet flats, puffy skirts and, yes, ribbons. The way a ribbon is styled communicates very different things — for example, not all ribbons are bows, yet a bow transforms a ribbon. In today’s fashion ecosystem, the versatility of a bow is on full display. London-based designer Simone Rocha’s bow earrings have become a staple. Fine and weightless, they finish any outfit. The Shanghai label Shushu/Tong employs bow maximalism, with every piece incorporating at least one bow, resulting in garments that are playful yet restrained. New York designer Sandy Liang’s summer collaboration with Salomon uses ribbons and bows for a refreshing twist on the gorp standard. And style influencers have been democratically tying bows on everything from over-ear headphones to bag straps to headbands.

In all its serene defiance, the Prada embroidered ribbon dress is also about a bow. In the brand’s autumn/winter 2024 women’s collection — aptly titled “Instinctive Romance” — designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons play with hard and soft, black and pink, tailored and relaxed, to propose fall’s most poetic take on romantic fashion, culminating with an embroidered ribbon dress, a sleeveless shift made of 35 hand-cut, -tied and -embroidered bows cascading from neck to knee. The bows danced as the models walked down the runway during the collection’s show at the Prada Foundation in Milan in tone-on-tone aubergine and baby pink iterations styled with black knee-high boots. The back of the dress featured an unexpected panel of black silk, minimal and bowless. When the models turned to march backstage, their ribbon tails confidently reached around from the front in buoyant embrace. (Chioma Nnadi, editor in chief of British Vogue, described the dress as the “bowment” of the season.)

“Made in Prada — Fragments of Romance” (Courtesy of Prada)

Wholly intentional, Prada’s design team used complex techniques to animate each bow. The first step involved positioning the ribbon embroidery in a classic chevron pattern. The embroiderer then cut the satin ribbons at precise angles to correspond with the pattern and secured the ribbons onto the fabric by hand. The preparation of 35 bows was next; they were shaped and ironed one by one before they were sewn at the specified points along the chevron pattern created by the ribbons. The next step involved attaching the embroidered fabric to the contrasting black silk lining, then a second pressing, followed by additional bows being sewn at the hips and around the neck. After 165 feet of ribbon and 13 hours of embroidery, a dress was complete.

Brought to life by craftsmanship that can be executed only by hand, the ribbons on this dress are alive. They speak, surely, but they don’t shout. Miuccia Prada’s long-standing love for ribbon is well documented at her other brand, Miu Miu, where inventive references to ballet and femininity are often the undercurrent of each collection. The Prada embroidered ribbon dress is the posh auntie’s version of Miu Miu’s preeminent and forever young buckle ballet flats. Both items prove that cute and tough can coincide in a way that only Prada can do.

Fernanda wears embroidered dresses from “Instinctive Romance” Fall/Winter 2024 Prada collection.

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Long categorized as clichés of femininity, ribbons and bows have been reduced to stereotypes, rather than the compelling and versatile tool they are. Maybe the current resurgence of bows in fashion stems from the desire to reclaim this narrative while simultaneously romanticizing our lives in turbulent times. What could be less romantic than an election year? A bow is a hit of sweet to overpower the sour, but it’s also confident and fluid in its dimensions, expressing much more than it’s given credit for.

In rhythmic gymnastics, ribbons become an extension of the dancer’s body and punctuate every movement with equal parts control and abandon. Stevie Wonder used ribbons as a metaphor for endless love. From awareness ribbons to gift giving, ribbons are used to show compassion and care too. In many communities, ribbons and bows play a significant cultural role, from intricate hair braiding traditions in Guatemala to sacred ribbon skirts in Indigenous tribes across North America. What is a ribbon, then, but a vessel for deep connection and communication? A bow, however saccharine, is symbolic and powerful. A reclamation of cute and a potent, universal tool for self-expression. Call it the bow attitude.

Model Fernanda Álvarez
Hair and makeup Carla Perez
Styling assistant Deirdre Marcial

Romany Williams is a writer, editor and stylist based on Vancouver Island, Canada. Her collaborators include SSENSE, Atmos, L.A. Times Image and more.