Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl has sparked an orange investigation

Taylor Swift is undoubtedly the queen of cryptic clues, and the build-up to her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl, has been no different. After the announcement, fans began to realise the countless easter eggs Taylor has been dropping across the months, and as always, she hasn't scrimped on the details.

Taylor's been known to weave some ingenious clues into almost everything, from web design to music videos, but it's only since the album announcement that fans have realised how far back the clues go. All it took was a flash of orange and green to set theories ablaze.

Speculation began when a glittery orange countdown clock appeared on Taylor's website, set to end at 12:12 a.m. ET on 12 August. This was closely followed by a teaser for the upcoming episode of the Kelce brothers' podcast, where Taylor was seen opening up a mint green briefcase to reveal the blurred silhouette of the new album.

With an investigative fervour on par with the CIA, Swifties soon began scouring Taylor's social posts, tour sets and music videos to find the clues that were there all along. The first clue appeared at the Eras Tour, where Taylor is seen walking through an orange door – while at the time it seemed innocuous, we now know Miss Swift already had something up her sleeve.

Flashes of Taylor's showgirl era also appeared in the Anti-Hero music video, where a plain white-clad Taylor (representing her album The Tortured Poets Department) is seen with a glammed-up sparkly orange clone. But knowing Miss Swift, fans began to theorise a deeper meaning to the new colour scheme, with many questioning whether, beneath the glitz, the showgirl theme could have a more poignant meaning.

The most popular fan theory suggests that the orange and green motif represents rust, akin to the Statue of Liberty's oxidation process. "The colour scheme is copper oxidising because a showgirl is on a pedestal for the world and over time, in the public eye, they lose their shine… the weathering from being the target for the world’s misogyny," one fan on X theorised. "I wonder if it’s alluding to two different perspectives of her life as a Showgirl? Like the bright copper being when things were exciting and new, then the turquoise being after age/experience," another added.

For more news, check out how Taylor recently used web design to drop a major Easter egg or check out what all creatives can learn from Taylor Swift's ownership victory.