Taylor Swift’s ‘Lavender Haze’ video stars Laith Ashley
Taylor Swift dropped her newest music video for her song “Lavender Haze” featuring transgender model Laith Ashley as her love interest.
The video, written and directed by Swift, was released on Friday and fans can see Ashley, 33, cozying up to the Grammy winner, also 33.
The 3-minute purple-hued video, about being in love, shows Swift bathing in the nude as well as sitting on a bed with a rain cloud hanging over her head.
The “Cats” star is also seen cuddling up next to a shirtless Ashley as she playfully draws stars on his back with her finger.
Swift lights a match and violet smoke appears around her in her artistic and colorful music video reverie.
In another scene, the singer sits on a couch adorned in a furry blue coat as she adoringly watches Ashley giving the weather report on TV.
The surreal video then shows Swift crawling over to the TV set and opening the screen, which reveals fish swimming in outer space.
By the end of the video, Swift and Ashley are lovingly snuggled up together at a house party with their friends.
The last scene includes Swift knocking down what seems to look like a film set of the house party to reveal swimming fish in a starry sky.
The “Midnights” artist announced the clip’s premiere this morning, praising Ashley and expressing her excitement for fans to watch it.
“The ‘Lavender Haze’ video is out now. There is lots of lavender. There is lots of haze,” Swift wrote on Instagram.
“There is my incredible costar @laith_ashley who I absolutely adored working with. This was the first video I wrote out of the 3 that have been released,” she continued.
Swift added: “This one really helped me conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights, like a sultry sleepless 70’s fever dream. Hope you like it 😁.”
Ashley also commended Swift for inviting him to be a part of the work, tweeting on Friday: “Thank you so much @taylorswift13 for allowing me to play a small part in your story. You are brilliant and this is an experience I will never forget.”
“Thank you for being an ally,” he added. “Representation matters. AND LOVE WILL ALWAYS WIN!”
Ashley began transitioning in 2014 and has since seen success as a model. He posed for legendary photographer Bruce Weber for a fashion campaign for Barney’s New York, according to the Daily Mail.
Swifties quickly raced to YouTube to watch the new video and applauded Swift for her creativity. Fans also thanked Swift, a vocal advocate of the LGBTQ community, for casting a trans man as her love interest.
A user commented on the clip’s page: “Love seeing how much Taylor has evolved. Not only as a musician and artist, but as a person. The cosmic 70s aesthetic, lyrical references and not-on-the-nose diversity in this video make me so happy I could cry.”
A Twitter user wrote: “Taylor Swift casting a trans man in the Lavender Haze video is just so much, I love her.”
“trans followers the male lead in the new taylor swift video is a trans man so we got some rep finally,” another chimed in.
The song “Lavender Haze” came out on Oct. 21 of last year and is the first track on Swift’s album “Midnights.” Taylor Swift said she was inspired to write the track while watching Mad Men.
“I happened on the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men, and I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would just describe being in love,” she told Entertainment Tonight.
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