Taylor Swift’s Era tour sparked a 357 per cent increase in searches for sequin dresses, statistics reveal.
The American pop star’s appearances in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Liverpool in June saw her fashion style take the country by storm.
This included department store John Lewis reporting a massive surge in sparkly sequined evening dresses between June 7 and June 22, which coincided with the first leg of Swift’s tour.
Swift’s ‘Swifties’, the affectionate nickname for her fans, also sparked a 98 percent increase in searches for sequined skirts.
In July, economists argued that because of the popularity of Swift’s tour, inflation remained at 2 percent instead of falling, due to an increase in food purchases, hotel room reservations and car rentals. .
Laura Suter, head of personal finance at investment firm AJ Bell, said at the time: “Policymakers at the Bank of England may be cursing Taylor Swift, as fans who spend on hotel rooms and restaurants during her Eras tour are likely one of the reasons prices rose in June, meaning headline inflation stagnated at 2 percent rather than falling.
Swift’s ‘Swifties’, the affectionate nickname for her fans, have led to a 98 per cent increase in searches for sequined skirts.
John Lewis reported a massive rise in sparkly sequined evening dresses during the first leg of Swift’s tour.
Swifties’ outfits are inspired by Taylor’s tour outfits, as the star wears sparkles and feathers every night.
Swift’s effect on Britain’s fashion sense emerged as part of a general breakdown of what Britons bought in 2024.
Unsurprisingly, one of the big draws was the Euro final in July, when England narrowly lost to Spain 2-1, but fans spent £10m on pints – a record for a Sunday.
But in a sign that it’s not all booze and football in England, young people eating healthily contributed to a 17.5 per cent rise in cucumber sales after being influenced by recipes posted on TikTok.
In August, a cucumber salad recipe from Logan Moffitt, known as the ‘Cucumber Guy’, who has 4.8 million followers on social media, is so popular that Icelandic farmers are struggling to meet demand.
However, it was the year of the deep fryer which soared to become the third most popular kitchen appliance in Britain in September, behind the trusty toaster and microwave oven.
When the end of summer and the September rains arrived, couples and families were forced to stay home and drink hot chocolate to keep their spirits up.
Sales of hot chocolate increased 28 percent that month and soup sales increased 10 percent, and home baking ingredients saw a 7 percent increase.
The best-selling book of the year on Amazon was The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, which is about the mysterious maid Millie Calloway who works for the wealthy Nina Winchester despite her criminal past.
It was also a good year for Rory Stewart, the former Conservative politician, whose memoir Politics On The Edge topped the biography category.