Once upon a time, Victoria's Secret model Jessica Hart made a slightly shady remark about Victoria's Secret Fashion Show performer Taylor Swift after the 2013 show. T. Swift didn't take kindly to that and allegedly specified Hart not be allowed back in 2014 as a sign-on condition. Over three years have passed but Hart is apparently still salty about the whole thing. So salty, in fact, that she had a custom clapback stitched into a sweater. It reads "Four letters bad word Taylor Swift" referring to whether or not she will see Swift next Tuesday, euphemistically speaking. To prove her commitment to the slight, she posted three Instagrams of herself posing in it. Gotta think of the grid when you're rocking #outfitoftheday shade:
'Just a mess, messing around always... 😜' she captioned the three shots. Taylor Swift's 'Snake Army' fans arrived to express their feelings in the comments:
The sweater, by the way, is from Eddie Eddie by Billy Tommy. The brand confirmed it was custom-ordered in their own re-gram of Hart's outfit shot:
Interestingly, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley liked one of the 'grams, so make what you will of that in regards to Huntington-Whiteley's squad status:
A lot of drama led this moment. At 2013 show's after party, Hart was asked if Swift could pull it off as a Victoria's Secret model. 'No,' Hart told a WWD reporter. 'I think, you know what, god bless her heart. I think she's great. But, I don't know, to me, she didn't fit. I don't know if I should say that. I think what you find is that for a lot of us, we've been working for 14, 15 years; what it takes to make it here comes from experience and confidence and knowing how to be confident with yourself. I think it comes with age. It's definitely the benchmark of all jobs.'
Hart later backtracked on what some people perceived as a shady answer. 'I adore Taylor Swift, and I was so excited to be with her at the Victoria Secret Fashion Show,' Hart told Us Weekly. 'What Taylor does on stage is nothing compared to what we do. I could never get up there and do what she does! She is a true rock star and she absolutely killed it the other night. Her song 'Fearless' was one of my favourite songs, and I own her first ever CD. I can't imagine why I would have said anything bad about her.'
Ultimately, she told Vogue Australia that the WWD remark 'was taken out of context, but I have certainly learnt my lesson.' Victoria's Secret's chief marketing officer Ed Razek told Us Weekly the same thing: 'I have personally been in contact with Jessica Hart and she said she was 'wildly misinterpreted' and that she thought Taylor was 'amazing,'' Razek told the outlet in November 2013. 'She is stunned that anyone would think differently. And that's something we can all agree on.'
This back pedaling was not enough going forward. Page Six first reported two weeks after the show that Victoria's Secret would no longer use Hart as a model. This is partly true: Hart has not walked one of the brand's runway shows since 2013.
In 2014, NY Daily News ran a report that Swift explicitly asked to have Hart banned from that year's show. 'It's not been announced that Jessica is not walking, but it was a direct request from Taylor that this be the case if she were to go,' a Victoria's Secret insider told the outlet. 'No one can know that Taylor requested Ms. Hart not be in the show. They want to keep that under wraps, but that's the facts.'
Swift, of course, has not commented on any of this or issued any kind of response to Hart now. But sometimes, silence is the classiest—and simultaneously most savage—answer of all.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
