It’s well established by now that Taylor Swift has a big reputation for Easter eggs and hidden clues, slipping hidden messages into her album’s liner notes to subtly shout out friends since the beginning, and maybe even hinting at her then-secret relationship with Travis Kelce with via an opal necklace all the way back in early September, weeks before she showed up at a Kansas City Chiefs game for the first time. Which makes us feel slightly less unhinged to point out what Swift, who was spotted paying a visit to Electric Lady Studios in New York City earlier this week, wore Wednesday evening, and wondering whether it’s a hint to an upcoming album announcement.
Swift stepped out in Brooklyn Wednesday with known associate Blake Lively wearing a pair of over-the-knee snake print boots to grab pizza at Lucali. The boots are by Jimmy Choo and retail for $2,450, but you can’t put a price tag on speculation over whether this is yet another hint that Swift is getting set to announce the release of her next re-recording as Reputation (Taylor’s Version).
The original 2017 release of Reputation, Swift’s final studio album released by her former Big Machine label (its masters are owned by music mogul/Swift nemesis Scooter Braun), was rife with snake imagery in reference to her feud with Kanye West and then-wife Kim Kardashian, which began in 2016. It was a different time: Snapchat was a well-trod battlefield in this war, which, to give a broad summary, stemmed from West’s track “Famous” and whether or not Swift gave her blessing on a line that drops her name. The ammunition: so many emojis. Swift extended that serpentine motif through the album’s merch and the Reputation tour, facing off against the creatures onstage and even soaring above the audience in a giant animatronic snake. Subtle.
Given the significance of snakes in Swiftian history, then, it’s not a leap to wonder whether these boots are not only a fashionable footwear choice but also a hint. Her outfit at last Sunday’s Golden Globes also stoked speculation: Was that shimmering green Gucci number, whose all-over sequins could be seen as scale-like, a hint as well? Or was its pairing with pal Keleigh Sperry‘s aqua gown a gesture in a different direction, since the vivid green-and-blue color palette is similar to the color scheme for her debut album’s art—the only older album, apart from Reputation, that hasn’t been re-released.
On the other hand, Swift’s olive green crushed velvet minidress is very folklore-coded, matching that album’s woodsy aesthetic, and we have no reason to think there may be an announcement about that album forthcoming. There’s plenty to speculate a-boot, but maybe a boot is just a boot.
Representatives for Taylor Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment.