How Taylor Swift turned an Arrowhead hallway into her personal runway

Like clockwork, Taylor Swift arrives at Kansas City Chiefs games a little over an hour before kickoff. She jumps into a golf cart alone or with friends and family, and it takes her to the red-and-gold tunnel. The fashionista struts down the walkway toward news photographers snapping photos and recording videos.

The images are instantaneously uploaded to social media and dispersed by Taylor Swift fan accounts around the world. Before the singer has reached her suite seat overlooking the field, hundreds of thousands of Swifties have liked, commented on and shared her outfit for the game. Searches for the looks skyrocket on Google and, in some cases, the outfits and accessories sell out.

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'Selling makeup and magazines'

In October, Swift wore glitter freckles to the New Orleans Saints game and forever changed the life of a young businesswomen. Aliett Buttelman, a co-founder of Fazit Beauty, had a goal on April 16: to get Taylor Swift to wear her metallic faux freckles. Whether through manifestation or business savvy, she completed the task in less than six months.

"We sent the agent of (Swift's) makeup artist, Lori Turk, samples in May," she says.

But she had no idea Swift would wear her cosmetic product to an NFL game.

"I just started sobbing," Buttelman says. A TikTok video of her crying has been viewed more than 7 million times, and her company's sales skyrocketed 3,500% following Swift's appearance at the Chiefs game.

The pop star’s endorsement, in addition to several viral TikTok videos and being picked up by Urban Outfitters, propelled the brand into a higher echelon of the cosmetics industry.

"We finally have the retailers of our dreams coming to us and moving mountains for us," Buttelman says. "Same thing with corporate partnerships. Whether it's Fortune 500 companies or national sports teams, everyone is coming to us for the first time."

'Red lip classic thing that you like'

Influencer Sarah Chapelle has been following Swift's tailored looks for 13 years. Chapelle posts the specific brands and prices of jewelry, clothing, shoes and purses that Swift dons, and she's become the go-to source on Swift's fashion sense.

Chapelle's catalog of the singer's signature looks over the eras prompted her to write the New York Times bestselling book "Taylor Swift Style."

"Covering Taylor's fashion has always just been a combination of the things that I feel the most passionate about and that I still feel passionate about," Chapelle says. " The confluence of Taylor, whose music I've loved for over half of my life, along with the power of fashion to be used as a medium to communicate a message has been something I've been enamored with ever since I was a teenager."

Chapelle has noticed some key distinctions between Swift's first-season appearances at Arrowhead and her second.

Chapell says Season 1 themes included wearing vintage, sporting local and women-owned brands, and showcasing herself in a supporting role. Many of the looks included throwback sweatshirts or custom jackets featuring No. 87, Travis Kelce's jersey number. Chapelle says Swift's 13th appearance — at the Super Bowl — was an Easter egg nod to several of her style choices at games throughout the year.

"The Super Bowl was just so well executed," Chapelle says. "The Dion Lee corset that threw back to what she wore to Game 3 while also being like this diplomatic reference to Australia, one of the next stops on the Eras Tour. Her WEAR by EA jacket, which was also a callback to Game 3. The AREA embellished pants, which combined the color of her Game 1 shorts with a pair of shorts in Game 2. There were just so many nostalgic elements, and it was like the right amount of sentimental while also being blingy."

'What if I told you I'm back'

After wrapping the European leg of the Eras Tour, Swift strutted the Chiefs tunnel in September like it was a New York Fashion Week runway.

With her hair down, she arrived at Arrowhead in a blue denim Versace "Medusa" bustier (priced $1,325), a short denim Grlfrnd skirt (priced $115) and thigh-high maroon Giuseppe Zanotti boots (priced $1,600).

" It really felt like a very confident and bold look," Chapelle says. "Ultimately, Year 2 had looks far more elevated. It feels like she's at a, I guess, new heights level of glam and confidence and feeling more free to be fun with fashion."

Chapelle adds that Kelce also likes to have a good time with his fashion choices as videos of him now make the rounds in the Swift universe. Although she catches glimpses of Kelce walking to the locker room with an energy drink in hand, Chapelle isn't here to document No. 87.

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"I think Travis is not afraid to have fun and be funny with his fashion," she says. "He seems to be excited by experimenting with pattern and print."

Swift's Season 2 themes include elevated looks, plaid and checkered fits, and vintage duds.

'Who are we to fight the alchemy?'

As Swift has become synonymous with the Chiefs by singing about the team on the Eras Tour and baking victory cookies for the coaches and players, Kansas City's football team has gone through its own evolution to incorporate her into the red-and-gold's story.

Early on, photographers snapped photos of the singer as she whizzed by to her box seat. Photojournalists on the field would capture her celebrating there. She became familiar with Arrowhead's staff and security. The novelty has transitioned to comfortability.

Photographers are now conditioned to gather in the tunnel to capture her full look. And Swift knows this cycle of feeding the beast all too well, which is why all her looks are different, unrivaled and primed for the fanbase.

Some the credit belongs to Joseph Cassell Falconer. The stylist has been with Swift for more than a decade and signs off on her game day attire.

And with Kelce signed for another year (his 13th), you can bet there will be more attention, more articles and more lives to be changed by Swift's fashion.

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Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Inside Taylor Swift's football fashion at Chiefs games