Suits
The suit is Taylor's shorthand for a man defined by surface, status or power. In Blank Space the "suit and tie" reduces the lover to a good-looking, magazine-ready accessory. In Clara Bow "these suits in L.A." aren't people at all but the industry executives who run the machinery of fame, named only by their clothes. And in loml the "suit and tie" is left deliberately ambiguous, the same outfit worn to a wedding or a funeral, which the song refuses to settle. The common thread is the suit standing in for the person, formal dress doing the work of a character.
A suit puts the focus on the outside, what someone wears rather than who they are, which makes it useful for men valued or feared for their surface, their money, looks or power. Naming people by their suits strips them of individuality, turning lovers into accessories and executives into a faceless class. And because the same formalwear suits weddings and funerals alike, the image can hold celebration and grief in a single outfit.
Appears in 3 songs
“In your suit and tie, in the nick of time”
The suit and tie carries deliberate ambiguity, it could be worn to a wedding or a funeral, and the poem refuses to resolve which. This serves the song's central double-meaning structure.
“No one in my small town thought I'd meet these suits in L.A.”
The suits represent the industry executives, agents, and corporate figures who control the machinery of fame: depersonalized figures defined only by their clothing, contrasting with the 'flesh and blood' humanity of the artists they recruit.
“New money, suit and tie”
The suit and tie as a marker of the lover's surface attractiveness, he looks good, he's rich, he's magazine-ready. The image reduces the lover to an accessory in the speaker's public narrative.