Amal Clooney is hitting the reset button.
You may recall that in 2015 (a year when Marc Jacobs accidentally uploaded a belfie to Instagram and Kendall Jenner achieved a record number of likes for this photo), culture journalists were tasked with investigating the existence of Taylor Swift’s belly button. It was an innocent time in digital media, and after tireless research (for all of five minutes), it was discovered that, yes, Swift does have a navel.
In the tradition of lizard conspiracies and doppelgänger body doubles, the “absence” of Swift’s belly button was alleged to be evidence of her superhuman manufacturing. Something about the Illuminati, too, I should imagine. But it was also because she likes to wear high-waist skirts and crop tops, as seen here and here and here and in just about every other public appearance that Swift has made between the years of 2014 and 2023.
Perhaps that is what inspired Amal Clooney’s latest ensemble. This weekend the barrister stepped out in a sequined coord that revealed a sliver of skin (just above) the navel. She wore her Swiftian two-piece with knife-point stilettos and a leather jacket. At this point Amal’s interest in spangled eveningwear is well-documented, but this could also be unpacked in another direction: as a tacit audition to join Taylor’s “squad.” Or perhaps she is hiding her own belly button, for reasons unexplained.
This article first appeared on British Vogue.
