You are so tall!" shouts Alexander Wang when he first lays eyes on Taylor.
"I think I am still growing," she says. "I haven't topped off yet."
Alexander discreetly checks out her look. "Is this Rodarte?"
"Yes," says Taylor. "It's from their fall collection."
"Well, it fits you perfectly." And then, handing out fashion's highest compliment, "You are sample-size!"
"It's really nice when I get on shoots and everything fits," Taylor replies as I stand off on the side silently.
"But I bet it also makes it difficult for you," says Alexander, "because they're probably like, 'Oh, she's sample-size, and that means she can wear anything from the runway collection.' And you're like, 'I am not wearing that.' "
They laugh. Then the two head over to the clothes hanging nearby, Alexander Wang's futuristic-BMX-sporty collection that he showed a few days earlier. He pulls something from the rack that he calls a "knit racing sweater," and Taylor says, "How Tron of you."
"She gets it! I love it!" says Alexander, clearly charmed. They walk over to the accessories. "Need a motocross helmet?" he asks, who has designed one with flowers on it.
"That's amazing," she says. "You should send one to Pink. She would love that." There is something reflexively generous about Taylor, who says to Alexander as they hug goodbye, "I love how happy you are."
As we ride the elevator down, she offers her take.
"Some people just attract attention and excitement," she says. "It's kind of unexplainable. People study it. There's a science to the It factor. There are certain people who elicit a really passionate response. It's crazy. That's my Alexander Wang theory."
I've interviewed Taylor Swift over the past three years, and here are the things that I remember that still ring true: She was (1) smarter than the average bear; (2) excessively gracious; (3) happy to talk a blue streak about music; (4) preternaturally ambitious; (5) delighted to discover that the town her family summer vacationed in, Stone Harbor, New Jersey, is the town where I grew up.
Now, in the car on our way to Prabal Gurung's studio in midtown, I tell her that I was just in Stone Harbor with my family, having lunch, and mentioned that Taylor Swift is sort of from there. "I am totally from there," she says. "That's where most of my childhood memories were formed." She goes on, "When you say, 'I spent my summers at the Jersey Shore,' people always say, 'Oh, really?' They think of the TV show. So I just say, 'A cute little harbor town in New Jersey'."
As with her music, there is a sprinkling of fairy dust on Taylor's childhood memories of Stone Harbor.
"We lived on this basin where all this magical stuff would happen. One time a dolphin swam into our basin. We had this family of otters that would live on our dock at night. We'd turn the light on and you'd see them, you know, hanging out, just being otters. And then one summer, there was a shark that washed up on our dock. I ended up writing a novel that summer because I wouldn't go in the water. I locked myself in the den and wrote a book." She stares at me, wide-eyed. "When I was fourteen." She laughs. "Because of a shark!"
Prabal Gurung's studio is tiny. Five people, plus the designer (with his muscular arms and a pompadour) and the place is standing room only. Taylor spots a photo tacked on the wall of a model in one of Gurung's dresses. "I love Karlie Kloss," she gushes and touches the picture. "I want to bake cookies with her!"
And then she turns and looks at the racks of clothes, the collection Prabal showed on Saturday.
"So, what's going on here?" she says, taking control. Inspired by the Japanese artist Nobuyoshi Araki's Sensual Flowers photography series, Prabal's collection looks like a floral-print Rorschach test in violet and magenta and turquoise and black. "Very Katy Perry," remarks Taylor. She picks up a white blouse that is long in the back and short in the front and says, "A shirt mullet!" Finally she spots a skirt that makes her happy and sucks in her breath. "Oh, my gosh. This is beautiful. What made you think of this?"
