Words by Honor McWilliams, Lead Stylist.

Image courtesy of Taylor Swift.

I think it’s fair to say that anyone who even slightly knows me could tell you that I am completely and utterly obsessed with Taylor Swift, and always will be. From the first time I saw the “Love Story” music video when aged 9 years old, to being chosen to meet her with my little sister Grace, and now at the age of almost 22, she really has grown up with me, and taught me so much every step of the way.

Today marks the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), the second of her six albums she is in the process of re-recording in order to legally own her music after her previous record label was sold. Even just symbolically, this is extremely meaningful. Although choosing a favourite Taylor Swift album is what I imagine a mother being asked to choose her favourite child is like, if I had to pick one, it would always be Red.

I remember driving with my Mum after school to buy the physical CD from HMV, vehemently refusing to listen to a single song on my phone until I’d blasted it through my CD first. I remember sitting at the dressing table in my room reading the little album lyric book trying to learn all the songs off by heart. I remember starting to go through my red lipstick phase, which, to this day, has yet to end.

It was also at her Red Tour that I finally met Taylor, after being chosen as one of a handful of (very over the top) fans in an arena of 22,000 people to go backstage and chat to her. With the words RED smudged on our foreheads using my Mum’s good red lipstick, tears streaming down my face, I cannot put into words the sheer euphoria I felt in that moment. Almost 8 years later, I still look back on that night as one of the most lucky and incredible experiences I will maybe ever have. Like ever.

Few artists can attract this much excitement with a re-recording of their music. Fewer still have been able to create not just albums, but thematic universes and ‘eras’ that even almost a decade have such a distinct and emblematic style.

Image courtesy of Taylor Swift.

Regardless of your taste in music, it is abundantly clear that Taylor Swift is a master of aesthetics. Red is an era of warm coats, cold autumnal walks and dark winter night-time drives. It’s sunset leaves and warm coffee. It’s feeling happy, free, confused and lonely in the best way with your friends surrounding you. It’s being in a constant red lipstick state of mind.

Many of us will now be at the age that Swift herself was when she wrote and released the album. I don’t know about you, but now that I’m almost 22 I feel both a real sense of nostalgia and pride thinking of all that has happened between little 12 year old Honor singing Red in the car, to current Honor on the cusp of graduation. I try not to think too much about the fact, though, that at the age of 22 Taylor Swift had released 4 albums.

So, put your red lipstick on, or old scarf (or both!) and enjoy listening to the autumnal masterpiece that is Red (Taylor’s Version).

And if you think you’re having a bad time with deadlines right now, you can rest assured that Jake Gyllenhaal and his PR team are most definitely having it worse.

An Ode to Red (Taylor’s Version)