NEW YORK, NY.- By now, youve very possibly heard the news, whether you wanted to or not: On Sunday, 12-time Grammy Award-winning pop star Taylor Swift stoked recent dating rumors when she showed up at the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears to watch Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce lead the team to victory.
Swift ate chicken fingers and took in the game from a private box with Kelces mother, Donna. When the singer left the stadium after the game, decked out in Chiefs gear, Kelce, striding alongside her, wore a light blue and white denim jacket and pants set from KidSuper.
The image of Kelce and Swift together quickly went viral and sparked immediate interest in Kelces outfit.
American designer Colm Dillane started releasing clothes under the label KidSuper in 2010. Dillane, 31, who has been lauded as the next Virgil Abloh, won the Karl Lagerfeld special prize from LVMH in 2021. In January, he collaborated with Louis Vuitton for its critically acclaimed menswear show. But on Sunday night, Dillane and his KidSuper co-workers were texting in their group chat about the unexpected surprise of Kelces outfit during such a high-profile paparazzi moment.
Kelce had worn the brand before, most notably on his way to the 2023 Super Bowl. (The Chiefs won.) But this was even more of an opportunity for Dillane and his team, the designer said: They knew instinctively that just being in proximity to Swift, whose popularity and influence is astronomical, could mean big things for the brand.
In the group chat, Dillanes friend Doug Gleicher suggested adding a Swift reference to the official product names on the KidSuper website. Because the brand manages its website in-house, he said, it took KidSupers web developer, Adham Foda, about one second to change the Bedroom Painting denim set to the 1989 Bedroom Painting denim set.
All we did was write 1989, Dillane said. We were like, Ha-ha, this is funny, and then I tweeted it. Swifties of Cincinnati picked it up, and then it just went so stupidly viral.
Many news outlets initially reported that Kelce specifically chose to wear an outfit with 1989 in the name as a show of support for Swift the year is a reference to Swifts blockbuster 2014 album, which featured hits like Blank Space and Shake It Off though Dillane clarified on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the brand had changed the name only after seeing Kelce wearing it. Still, the move to rebrand the set was immediately praised as part of a genius business strategy.
Of course Ive tried my absolute hardest in so many creative ventures and this is the one that took off, Dillane said.
The 1989 Bedroom Jacket is now entirely sold out, and the pants are available only in small and medium. Dillane said that until Sunday, he wasnt planning on restocking the set, but now its like, maybe well only make that item for the rest of time.
Dillane said that while the virality of the 1989 Bedroom set did not financially change his life overnight, his friends parents who are very Americana were impressed.
Swifts brief appearance at Kelces game has had such an effect on American popular culture that, in addition to boosting sales for brands like KidSuper, it also almost immediately spawned its own merch. One Etsy shop is selling an Eras Tour-themed Kelce sweatshirt, while another is hawking a Chiefs-themed Loving Him Was Red T-shirt, an allusion to lyrics from the title track of Swifts 2012 album, Red.
But the couples public debut also had a profound effect on Dillane, who says he is now an avowed Swift fan.
I am a Swiftie, Dillane said. Now Im going to go to every tour. Im going to buy her merch. I think she made more money off of me than I made off of her because of how much Im going to invest in Taylor Swift for the rest of my life.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.