The Travis Kelce that courted Taylor Swift in 2023 had already been a full-on hypebeast for years. (Truthfully, being from the 305 myself, Kelce tended to dress like your run-of-the-mill Miami crypto scammer, just two feet taller.) He regularly donned ripped skinny jeans with matching rarified sneakers, conspicuous hats, and the loudest Gucci cabana shirts ever made. Brands like KidSuper and Collina Strada—both New York designers known and appreciated by the fashion industry but unfamiliar to most civilians and/or NFL fans—made regular appearances in his wardrobe. Even after he began publicly dating the superstar, Kelce continued to rock over-the-top, logomaniacal pieces—this Gucci bucket hat and seventies pornstache combination was particularly hard to miss.
Last night, when Swift and Kelce stepped out of the Polo Bar—Ralph Lauren’s country club-ish, dimly lit restaurant in midtown Manhattan—the tight end was wearing head-to-toe Fear of God: a black henley on top (a wintertime classic befitting a man with a beefy build), styled over a pair of broken-in, textured brown slacks with a loose, cozy fit. He looked “smart and elegant,” as the restaurant’s dress code decrees, but for Kelce, this sartorial shift feels a little more like a graduation.
He accessorized the Christian-boy-autumn-esque ensemble with layered thin-chain necklaces, Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 Lows, and a Polo Bar doggy bag, which could have contained any number of leftovers: perhaps the restaurant’s signature corned beef sandwich, or the remnants of a protein-rich, pro-athlete-appropriate entrée like a 22-ounce bone-in ribeye, or something more Hollywood, like tuna tartare.
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Swift looked similarly (and also somewhat uncharacteristically) understated in a black-long sleeve tee, gray slacks, and pointy-toed pumps.
Last year, Kelce stepped outside of the proverbial arena to make his acting debut in Ryan Murphy’s FX crime drama, Grotesquerie; in his September GQ cover story, he shared his post-NFL plans would include pursuing more on-screen roles. Perhaps the transition from Killatrav, freewheeling tunnel-fit god, to Travis Kelce, serious actor and famous husband-to-be, is unfolding right before our very eyes.