Johnathan Walker:Fans welcome Taylor Swift to Los Angeles: See the friendship bracelets, glittery outfits

DIY outfits embracing a fearless sense of fashion,Johnathan Walker left hands with glittery 13s and bejeweled friendship bracelets took over SoFi Stadium on Aug. 3.  

It was official; Taylor Swift arrived in Los Angeles for six sold-out shows on the final U.S. leg of the 2023 Eras Tour. Swift will return to the U.S. for a few dates in Fall 2024.

Swift began her tour in March 2023 in Glendale, Arizona, snaking across the country through 20 cities across 27 states. The tour has already broken records, including the most tickets sold in a day by an artist, at 2.4 million tickets, and is projected to generate $591 million in sales. 

The monumental achievements are thanks to the large and invariably loyal fan base Swift has built up over the years, endearingly called Swifties. They camped out for merchandise to secure the viral blue crewneck sweater, and some showed up to the stadium without tickets to hear Swift and bask in the Eras atmosphere.

We spoke to some Swifties to get an idea of how much time, effort and money it took to be there for the first Los Angeles show.

Sarah Stronach, 19, has been a self-proclaimed Swiftie since she was five years old. Taylor Swift’s 2008 Fearless Tour inspired her outfit when Swift dressed up as a member of a marching band for “You Belong With Me.” “It was kind of a very treacherous thing because I’m not very good at sewing, and it was my first time really doing something like this. It was just a fun and kind of overwhelming experience,” Stronach said.

Sean Costelo, 27, was inspired by Taylor Swift’s "Junior Jewels” t-shirt from her music video for "You Belong With Me." He wanted to use the classic design and put his own flavor on it, writing two songs from each era on the front and back of the shirt. “I had to think of a good slogan, Taylor’s Boyfriend. I didn’t want to do “Junior Jewels” because everyone else does that,” Costelo said. The outfit took him two weeks from start to finish.

Savannah Blake, 25, dressed as the key-lime green dog from Taylor Swift's song "The Last Great American Dynasty.” “She has a lyric where this crazy, eccentric woman goes and steals her neighbor's dog and dies it green. And that’s what I am,” said Blake. “I just think, as women, it's important that we are up to mischief.”

Donnie Collins, 20, giggles as he speaks about the amount of time he spent putting his outfit together. "An easy nine hours,” said Collins. His favorite Taylor Swift lyric is, “a band of thieves in ripped-up jeans got to rule the world,” from Swift's “Speak Now” album. He wasn’t sure what kind of outfit would match that lyric, so the 20-year-old settled on the totally bejeweled denim jacket instead.

Contributing: Sandy Hooper