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With her new video for “Lavender Haze”—the second single off her record-breaking 10th album, Midnights—Taylor Swift is showing her sensual side. The visual, directed by Swift herself, sees the singer continue the aesthetic thread of Midnights by waking up in a dimly lit room at the witching hour, drawing a hand across her lover’s back (played by model Laith Ashley) to reveal glittering star constellations, and crossing the room as plumes of lavender-hued smoke billow from underneath their bed. An ensuing party scene sees Swift lounge in Ashley’s arms before pushing down the walls of her apartment to find herself floating in space.There is plenty of charmingly retro fashion within the video, too: In one shot, Swift drapes herself across a sofa upholstered in a very ’70s floral print while wearing a silk and lace camisole dress and a blue faux-fur coat (and a lick of glittery blue eyeshadow), while the final setup sees Swift in a crochet tank top and baggy corduroy pants.
Of course, Swift being Swift, she peppered plenty of Easter eggs into the video to keep her eagle-eyed fans talking. In an interview ahead of the release of Midnights back in October, she made the rare admission that the song specifically referred to her romance with Joe Alwyn. “My relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it,” she said. “So this song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.” (Another recurring motif in the video? A fishbowl, serving as a metaphor for the intense scrutiny of living under the spotlight of fame.)