Taylor Swift is fearless — and fashionable — on the cover of TIME.
The 33-year-old singer was named the publication’s Person of the Year, showing off her figure in a black bodysuit and sheer tights on the highly anticipated issue’s front page.
Swift teamed the pantsless ensemble — a major trend for 2023 — with her signature red lip and had her blonde mane styled in loose, shaggy curls. The most standout aspect of the cover, however, is perhaps her cat Benjamin Button’s cameo. Swift’s blue-eyed fur baby could be seen wrapped around her shoulders, looking directly into the camera.
Inside the issue, Swift continued to show Us her edgy side. In one shot, she posed in a crisp white button-up shirt teamed with a black blazer and dark jeans — a drastic switch-up from her usual girly aesthetic. In a different snap, Swift bundled up in a plush turtleneck sweater with a denim button-up shirt and a canvas work jacket. Elsewhere, she posed in a black bodycon gown and a glittery corset top — all of which were paired with a crimson pout.
In addition to providing stylish eye candy, Swift opened up about her career, her friendship with Beyoncé and her romance with Travis Kelce.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she teased, referring to a July episode of Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, during which he revealed that he wanted to give Swift a friendship bracelet at one of her Kansas City Eras Tour stops. According to Kelce, 34, the pair weren’t able to meet at the concert, but Swift confirmed that the twosome “started hanging out right after that.” Sparks were already flying by the time Swift was spotted at her first Kansas City Chiefs game in September.
Swift went on to share that despite their relationship being so public, the two were able to foster a bond in private before their love made headlines at the end of the summer.
“We actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other,” she continued. “By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
Since then, Swift has supported Kelce at a number of his Kansas City Chiefs games, and the NFL star flew out to Buenos Aires last month to see the hitmaker perform on the international leg of her Eras Tour.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift told the outlet. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
As for Beyoncé, Swift praised her as “the most precious gem of a person — warm and open and funny.”
Swift also addressed trolls constantly pitting the artists against each other. “There were so many stadium tours this summer, but the only ones that were compared were me and Beyoncé,” Swift told TIME. “Clearly it’s very lucrative for the media and stan culture to pit two women against each other, even when those two artists in question refuse to participate in that discussion.”
Beyoncé, 42, put feud rumors to rest when she attended Swift’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour premiere in Los Angeles on October 12, which coincided with the tour. Swift, for her part, attended the premiere of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé in London earlier this month following the end of the Renaissance World Tour in October.
