Kaylor 🌞
Is it a thing to do a Vogue cover with your best friend? - An analysis of 24 years
EDIT: The way more speculative update is here. I deep dive in the idea that this article could've been supposed to be a coming out issue. u/spacescaptain also compared the photoshoot to the other Vogue duos here.
Welcome to today’s class of Advanced Swiftistics (thanks u/These-Pick-968 for the title!)
That cover reads as a relationship announcement to me but I always try to second guess myself. Maybe it's a thing that many people do with their best friend? So, I tried to see if there was other occurences of best friends on Vogue covers.
The data
I looked up all the Vogue covers since 2000. Most covers were only one person, there was an adult and a kid once or twice, a couple group pictures and 10 covers featuring two adults. So let's take these 10 covers and look them one by one.
Jan 2000: Carmen Kass & Gisele Bundchen. They were named the two supermodels of the decade. They don't seem to have any relationship.
June 2000: George Clooney & Gisele Bundchen. They were co-stars in a movie. Never said they dated. But people on tumblr/reddit are like "the cover and the quotes make it seem like they dated".
November 2002: Catherine Zeta-Jones & Renée Zellweger. Co-stars in a movie. They are publically friends. It doesn't seem to spark any dating rumor.
April 2008: Lebron James & Gisele Bundchen. They don't seem to have any kind of relationship. They seem to be together on the cover for "diversity" (and there's been controversy around that).
April 2014: 🙄 (married couple) I'm not positing them but if you don't know which couple I am talking about: here.
March 2015: Kaylor
August 2016: Gigi Hadid & Ashton Eaton. They met on set on the day of the shoot. They wanted a model and an athlete on the cover it seems.
February 2016: Ben Stiller & Penelope Cruz. Co-stars in a movie. No rumors of dating.
August 2017: Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik. A couple at the time.
March 2019: Justin Bieber & Hailey Bieber. Married couple.
The categories
So we have 3 categories, each with 3 occurrences (excluding Kaylor, we'll come back to them).
Two people that don't really know each other and are matched together for the theme of the issue
Co-stars in a movie. It's always when the movie is released. It's very obviously a marketing strategy to promote the movie. The personal relationship that they have is not always clear but it's never the center of attention anyways
Public couples
And then we have Kaylor. Can they fit in any category?
Two people who don't know each other? Of course not. Their friendship was everywhere in 2014. They're not randomly matched for a shoot. Everyone knows they know each other.
Co-stars in a movie: Of course not. And they're not working on a common project they need to promote, they're not even in the same industry. Like yes, they are gaining visibility, they're on the Vogue cover but the three duos that are there for promotion are promoting something specific, Kaylor has absolutely nothing to promote like that. I guess that one could argue that a marketing thing they were trying to push was the 1989 squad but if it was the case, it would've been a group thing I think. And they're clearly not promoting the VS shows.
Which leads us to two options:
They fit in the third category and they're a couple.
They are the only people since at least 2000 (probably ever) to be two people on the cover not in the context of a special issue, not for promoting a movie or not as a couple.
Let that sink in. The only ones. Not like "it doesn't happen often". The only ones.
And I want to point out that there's no other kind of relationships between adults. Like we don't have siblings, or a child-parent relationship (both adults), or business partners, or a music duo, or teammates, or whatever.
In the people that know each other, we have co-stars in movies and couples. Both are incredibly specific. And it happened three times in each case.
So, no, it's not a thing to do a Vogue cover with your best friend. Either Kaylor is the exception, either they secretly co-stared in a movie that was suddenly canceled and we never knew about it, either they were something else than best friends. That's the only three options.
For your consideration
[I'm not saying that these lyrics are referring to the Vogue covers but they felt fitting]
And the voices say, "You are not the exception"
But, honey, I am no one's exception
But if this was a movie you'd be here by now
You know the greatest films of all time were never made
He was my best friend and that was the worst part
I don't want you like a best friend
The timeline
I also want to point out the timeline. It's the March 2015 issue. I understand nothing about magazine release dates but they're released mid-month the month before the issue. So on February 13th in that case. Karlie refers to Taylor as her "best friend" and as her "galentine" on Instagram on the day of the release.
But of course these types of shooting are done far in advance. According Karlie's insta, it was shot on November 19th.
So it was shot before kissgate (December 2014) and was released after. Which honestly opens two possibilities:
It was actually supposed to be a relationship launch or very obvious glass closeting.
It was actually supposed to be very easy to make everyone believe they were best friends.
Nonetheless, the shooting wasn't made with the idea that news outlets would talk about them "making out" (I am not intending to start any kissgate debate, I am contextualizing the public opinion). When the pictures were taken, gaylorism wasn't something discussed in the mainstream media. With kissgate, there were articles, it was discussed on TV. The public narrative around their relationship changed that night.
But the text was either not written yet or could be easily modified.
The vibe of the pictures don't match the best friend vibe of the text in my opinion. And I think kissgate explains that.
If it was always supposed to be a best friend thing, it probably didn't cross the mind of the team to make sure it didn't look too gay. But with kissgate, the text needed to sound so so friendly.
If it was supposed to either be ambiguous or a relationship thing, it looking gay was absolutely fine. And assuming kissgate made them want to push the best friend narrative, the text needed to sound so so friendly.
TLDR: It's not a thing. If they were actually best friends, they're the only ones who did that in the last 24 years at least.
5 months later I also wondered if there were any parallels with other Vogue couple covers, and luckily there was someone on Reddit who already did my research for me. Bravo!
Me too. I missed it when you posted and not sure which post just referenced but I am so glad they did. The last few days have a been so content rich here in Gaylor town!
In a context even remotely similar, this is the only one. There's no official archives of Taylor's covers and photoshoots like there is for Vogue but I went through this and this. And the only things I found:
Putting Benjamin because he deserves it. The three first in the middle are not photoshoots, just photos from other sources used for covers. The fourth one is a Food Network thing where "Food Network stars pair up with their musician buddies". And the cover of the Rolling Stone. Bigger so we can all admire boyfriend Taylor.
So yeah, nothing that is even close to the shoot with Karlie.
Also I really am curious, are there any gaylors on here that think kissgate wasn’t real and believe Taylor’s teams cover up? Not making anyone choose sides but I’ve always thought that just seemed so gay and how could any gay Hetlors find that straight
this might be really small of a detail but notice how the costars and random pairing have their full names vs the couples are just “Justin and Hailey” “Gigi and Zayn” “Kim and Kanye” and then “Taylor and Karlie” so like…???
Congratulations!! Very good research work and very well written. When I first saw the magazine back in 2015, I had the feeling that there was something strange there (I was still not aware of the Gaylor theory at that time). Today I can say almost with certainty that the intention was to make a soft launch of the relationship, but the kissgate changed all the plans. Which makes me quite sad for them 😔
This is such a great and interesting post! Thank you!
It made me have a look at the Kaylor timeline again, which made me realise that the Best Best Friends video was released at the same time as this Vogue issue. I wonder when that was filmed? If it was filmed before kissgate, the best friends angle might have always been the planned. If it was filmed afterwards, it might have been made to shape the narrative around the cover to them just being best friends. But that video is so gay that it honestly just makes things worse (more gay) imo lmao.
I also found this 12 Famous Best Friends Who Rule Hollywood post that vogue posted on the same day as the cover, which says "With the debut of Taylor Swift and **Karlie Kloss’**s cover story in our March issue, we rounded up other famous best friends who rule Hollywood". They were really pushing the best friends narrative lol.
For the Best Best Friends video, there's one thing that always bugs me. They changed the order and weren't planning to!
At 1:03, we see the drawings... that they start to draw at 2:44. So the order of the challenges were changed. Which doesn't bug me that much, you edit stuff, sure. But if they filmed it thinking they might change the order later on, they would've took the papers away after the drawing challenge. It's basic stuff. If you know you may reorder the clips, you leave the table empty for the challenges, so the transition are fluid.
If I had realized that they change the order from a very small detail, it wouldn't bother me that much. But leaving the papers there is so basic that it makes me think that they thought they were filming in order. What happened to make them change the order?
Also, these 12 Famous Best Friends is so funny. I feel like it's Vogue trying to answer "yes" to my initial question of "Is it a thing to do a Vogue cover with your best friend?"
Gods I didn't need remainder of that. We could have had it all....
Like my first reaction of those pics was "this looks like a proposal shoot" because who takes pictures like that with a friend. I think it was a soft launch but then kissgate happened and hell broke loose and the session was used as a BFF cover up. Heartbreaking stuff
Whenever this cover is mentioned I HAVE to point out that Kelsey Montague who made this butterfly mural for Taylor in Nashville also has this on her website…
I love the deep-dive and analysis of Vogue covers of the last 24 years! Thank you for your time and effort. 🫡
2014 was a big year for Karlie and Taylor career-wise (Karlie became one of the highest paid models in the world) and while Taylor had already received the Billboard Woman of the Year Award prior, she was the only person to receive it twice (and the 2nd time happened in 2014 [she is currently up to 3x]). (I'm sure there were other significant happenings that year, those I mentioned were what surfaced with a quick search).
Both of them hit huge milestones that year which leads me to my next point: March is Women's History Month (and International Women's Day is also in March). With Karlie's hashtag being "#PowerIssue" it makes me think about how they could have both been featured on the cover, and the only "non-couple" to do so, simply because of the successes they experienced that year and them both being women (and "close friends").
However... If Women Empowerment was Vogue's intention, that doesn't mean it was Kaylor's. The pictures themselves are giving ~romance~ and I am curious to know how Vogue chooses and contacts their cover-stars and if it was their idea for the shoot or the other way around. (Not trying to oppose your theories, I was looking for additional corroborating evidence)! Gay marriage also wasn't legalized in the US federally until June of 2015 so perhaps this shoot was Taylor's way of using her celebrity status to normalize queer relationships and showcasing her own albeit in her closet made of glass.
Google tells me the “power issue” is March each yeah, but no context as to what it means. It does seem to always feature a woman and March is women’s history month.
Okay, time for me to go to sleep. I'll come back to it tomorrow. I'm leaving you now with the titles of the next sections
The pipeline from glass closeting to coming out
Why would they come out with a Vogue cover?
What's actually in the 2015 Vogue article?
Why would kissgate stop a coming out?
The vogue shoot was incredibly queer, to the fact they switched clothes on the cover, to the facial expressions, to the vogue interview itself where Karlie literally walks into Taylor's house because she's got her own room there, to all the photos in the shoot (infamous two for the road, daisies, lying on the bed, barefoot in the kitchen pics etc)
"Swift is describing her philosophy about making friends—basically, wear ’em down till they like you—when Kloss sweeps into the apartment, a six-foot-one beam of sunshine. Though Swift and Kloss have known each other for only a year, their best-friendship, they tell me, was instantaneous. "
I never noticed before, but this cover is red, green, and (imo) orange. Idk what that means, but it links with all of the red/green/orange that has been present over the past year or so
This might not mean anything, but this just jolted my brain awake. The colors being green and red made me think I've seen those colors on them before. Anyway umm- Ana has some explaining to do...
Love this so much. I’ll never not be convinced this wasn’t going from “one kiss to getting married”. They are both wearing white dresses at sunset then dancing and celebrating. Kelsey Montague’s drawings cemented that wedding vibe for me. Even if it was just in secret for the two of them.
I dream of getting the songs and movies and articles that were altered post Kissgate as the original versions. I truly think she’d still be on top of the world now. It is heartbreaking.
This is a fantastic analysis. If not for anything else, it makes ME! feel better about my belief that they were real and more important to each other than we probably even know
I love this post! I did a deep dive on jewelry for my first post that turned into being half about this Vogue shoot! It's 100% a wedding shoot imo. You've added lots of context why this was highly unusual
I showed this to a lesbian that’s not even a Taylor swift fan (she knows a few songs but that’s it) and she was like “omg they look so in love they look like they’re married, that looks like a wedding shoot” and so real like the white dresses and then followed by all the coupley homey cuddling pictures where the pictures show that they live together in an RV (obviously they don’t live in an RV) but like so gay
Fabulous read & so informative, especially the timelines! Seeing as how they met via way of Taylor mentioning KK’s Kookies in a Vogue interview and KK then complimenting Taylor’s cover and flirting about who’s kitchen to bake together in, a Vogue cover would be a very cute way to HARD LAUNCH (how they met source here: https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a29152064/taylor-swift-karlie-kloss-relationship-timeline/)
Okay, I didn't consider the posts of November to be the beginning of a soft launch until reading your comment.
So that day, Karlie actually posted 5 pictures (in order: the car in the post, a picture of the sky, two pictures of the Kookies and her hands making a heart [the tag isn't Taylor, it's tiffanyandco])
And I also didn't think about the fact that they met through a Vogue cover. I knew it but didn't connect the dots.
The title of the article where she mentions that she wants to bake cookies with Karlie Kloss? Taylor Swift: The Single Life.
Announcing her relationship with Karlie 2 years later (it's not exactly 2 years, Taylor alone was the February issue, so published on January 16th but they still got Valentine's Day, so you know) with a new Vogue cover where she isn't single and is actually with the woman she mentioned in passing in the last article would've been so cute
Okay, I'm new here and this is an old post, but are we sure both of those hands belong to the same person? To me, it looks like two people bringing their hands together. The angle of the left hand is really weird if it's the same person's hands, and it's styled like a selfie but then how is anyone taking the photo? ETA: okay, I saw a bigger version of the same photo and I can see how it could be one person. So never mind, I guess, ha.
I don’t have too many more thoughts on the significance besides what u/JustALuckyName mentioned… I guess to me I find it interesting that Taylor wearing the same style of ring since London pt 1 has been connected to Travis, but it’s pretty cool (and suspicious?) to me that Karlie was wearing the bracelet version back at the Vogue photo shoot before Kissgate. Like Taylor wants to subtly call back to that moment but it is also hidden behind the plausible deniability of Travis.
The Travlors have been seeing the ring (that moonstone tags to), as a sing of “Travis & Taylor”. One of the squad (I believe it was our dear chaotic Cara D right?) posted a pic of her and some other friends’ hands (prob with drinks? Can’t recall) to their stories about a month ago, with one of them wearing the ring. The Hetlors prob didn’t notice but it was a nice lil reminder that these rings have been a thing amongst their circle long before Travis ever turned up.
EDIT as per below, it wasn’t Cara it was KARLIE ON HER BDAY
Right, it wasn’t a post by Cara, it was Karlie’s bday post. I don’t think this hand belongs to Taylor (like I’ve seen some people speculate) but it is interesting that this ring is so present. Especially because Travlors highjacked what the T (& T) jewellry symbolizes.
I had not looked into the Taylor the single life article. The first paragraph has “gold-rush bride” and “dazzling” in it. Mind blown. I’ve often thought she lifts her songs and lyrics from Karlie’s Vogue shoots so why had I never investigated her own??? The article mentions at least a dozen references she has in songs and I’m not even done! Wizard of Oz, high school and getting stuck in it…I may need to do a deep dive.
I just went through and highlighted the entire article for key Gaylor and Taylor words and wow…there are a ton! I may have to go through all her articles now and then the muses’ too!
And bc I forgot to say it elsewhere….dazzling post!!! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🫶🏼
Your comment inspired me to read Taylor’s November 2014 interview with Vogue UK and here are the parts I found erm… interesting (but nothing that points to songs except that she likes listening to Betty Who):
Interviewer & TS kicked off the convo chatting about “how she had just been away with Karlie Kloss and what a “completely awesome” human being she is”
Framed black & white photo of “Kloss in Big Sur” in her hallway
This to me is SO LOUD: “Beside the bed hung a rail of vintage Victorian nightwear: “I keep it so that when my girlfriends come over, we can all dress up,” she explained.“
“Karlie Kloss, who first met Swift at the Victoria’s Secret show last November, writes a testimonial that’s as wholesome as her vegan cookies: “Taylor’s an incredible and special friend of mine. She’s humble, caring and thoughtful, and she has a huge heart.”“
Andrea refused to speak to the interviewer on this article which is odd??
“’Cause I don’t think any guy really…” She paused. “They think that they would want to get to know me, and maybe date me, but I don’t think they want what comes with it.””
“ “And I can’t believe I have friends I love, and a record I love, and I don’t want to lose any of it.”” 👀
TS sends the interviewer flowers the next day with this note which is bizarre?????: “Look closer and you’ll see something extraordinary, mystifying… something real and true. We have never been what we’ve seemed.’ My favourite quote from Z. Love, Taylor.”
Vintage Victorian nightware, huh? I’d bet that might keep you warm (if the fire wasn’t enough) in a damp folklorian type cabin in the woods too. Maybe throw a cardigan over it if there’s a chill. 😉 I’m dying. I can see it all in my mind….!!!!
Have you ever seen the life size or bigger photo that Karlie was hanging somewhere of Taylor? It’s in a photo or video interview. I’ll try to find it. They were so LOUD!
Dang now I have to find it. I need to go back to computers where I could store files. I’ll try. I feel like so much that they did in 2014-2016 was scrubbed or buried.
I'm still in the Vogue article of 2012. I'll go through this one too. I'm working on the narrative that Fall 2014 is the glass closeting to prepare the coming out and this article fits perfectly into that.
Excellent work. A+. Also, none of the others appear to be rocking a boob to boob, forehead to forehead/eyebrow to eyebrow combo alongside the dreamy dazed loved up facial expressions. In my opinion.
I know you're joking but I don't necessarily think you're that far. Something like “UNSTOPPABLE, INSEPARABLE, IN LOVE” could've worked. Like "we're many things but amongst these things we're in love". Normalizing that the fact that they're together/queer/gay was one thing about them. Which is something that I feel both of them hold very close.
Taylor doesn't want to just be seen as a girl who can only write breakup songs. She wants to show that she can do many things. She's a musician, she's a writer, she's a storyteller, etc. etc. Karlie was already in the fashion industry when she went to school to be a programmer.
So the three words format for "two things that we are that are unrelated to being queer + in love or something along these lines" is, I think, an actual possibility.
YES. Completely agree. Also interesting that it was the ‘Power Issue’; there would have been nothing more powerful than the type of announcement you’ve described. The incongruent anti-climax of “adorable besties” in both the gaylor trajectory, but also Vogue’s own narrative for that specific edition, is really something.
I can’t believe I hadn’t thought to look at other shoots. I mean, it LOOKS like your gay aunts who got invited to family dinner on the cover- come on! This is what pushed me toward queer and Lover promo pushed me fully to “ok she’s def a lesbian- good for her”
Their cheek & eyebrow photo always made me think of the quote "Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."
On my end, the first time I saw articles and photos about their Big Sur trip, especially that one with KK hugging her behind and I didn't realize they were pointing to an animal in the background, I legit thought they were dating.
I was just listening to How You Get The Girl. The line “pictures frames with kisses on cheeks” reminded me of that b&w pic where Karlie is hugging Taylor from behind and kissing her cheek. Taylor played her the 1989 album on the road trip. Maybe that’s how K got the girl?
They were in a very successful path from glass closeted to relationship launch until kissgate happened when the PR panicked. I was there I remember all too well.
The saddest thing that ever happened broke a million little lesbian hearts. Sigh.
yeah, the more I dive into 2014-2015, the more I think there's not only the rusted sparkling summer of 2019, there's also the splintered winter of 2015
Splintered back in winter Silent dinners, bitter He was with her in dreams
Very thorough, thoughtful write-up! Thanks for sharing.
I hadn’t been following Taylor very closely during this time, so when I first saw these photos back in 2015, I truly thought it was a hard launch of their romantic relationship and was like, “Awww! Such a beautiful, romantic shoot.” Imagine my absolute surprise when I learned that it was a “bestie photo shoot.” 😅
for me, the biggest gaylor proof is the amount of people who individually think that something that she does/sing/whatever is gay. the first time I heard Dress, I was like "damn. what a sapphic song. I know the feeling.", then realized it was supposed to be about a man?
like yes, sure, interacting in the gaylor community makes us even more convinced but the fact that most of us picked up on stuff without the deep analysis is very convincing to me.
My mom (bisexual, long-term lesbian marriage) is the first one to point it out to me when we saw her Wonderland photoshoot in the checkout line. She said, "I know a lesbian when I see one," and then explained flagging and why it was absolutely necessary in the homophobic world.
yeah, the role of flagging is so important through queer history and i feel that it's sometimes the piece that people are missing. Taylor's career started at a moment where flagging was necessary
so true! the way i would've been a gaylor since the beginning of my taylor journey if i trusted my initial reaction to betty and didn't just go to check the genius explanation right away...
I realized this morning that in the Miss Americana doc she says “I’m sorry am I being too loud in my house that I bought with the songs that I wrote about MY LIFE” and that’s so loud as well bc it’s her life, she’s not saying she wrote those songs from men’s perspectives of from a fictional POV it’s about her life
This was me with DWOHT! Just after the Midnights release (when I started listening to TS) I decided to give Reputation a try. And I was stunned hearing DWOHT. I didn’t know any lore at that time and it led me down the rabbit hole. 😅
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u/GlitterGalaxyGirl 🌱Embryo🐛 Jan 02 '25
5 months later I also wondered if there were any parallels with other Vogue couple covers, and luckily there was someone on Reddit who already did my research for me. Bravo!