‘Too crazy to be true!’ Taylor Swift’s retro Chiefs coat once belonged to JoCo Swiftie
Courtney Beasley’s mom was the first to notice it Monday night when she saw photos of Taylor Swift at the Chiefs-Tampa Bay game wearing a vintage leather Chiefs jacket.
“She said, ‘Wow, that coat really looks familiar. It looks like the one you used to have,’” Beasley, who is 29, told The Star on Tuesday. “Then chaos ensued.”
The story of how Beasley’s old Chiefs jacket came to be worn by the most well-known entertainer on the planet— a singer she has admired for years — is going viral in Swiftie world.
Beasley and her family, longtime Chiefs fans who live in De Soto in Johnson County, are in the process of moving. And as people do when they move, they’re getting rid of stuff.
They sold that leather jacket in August, on eBay. Then Swift showed up wearing it at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium Monday night.
The family didn’t know they had sold it to Swift’s longtime stylist, Joseph Cassell Falconer.
It was unlike any other Chiefs coat they saw listed on eBay. So Beasley, a wedding videographer who does business under the name Courtney Captures, isn’t surprised it caught Falconer’s eye.
They sold the ‘90s-era, Carl Banks G-III leather jacket, men’s size small, “excellent condition,” for $169.
Her family bought the coat at a garage sale more than 20 years ago after they moved here from Springfield, Beasley said.
“I would have been very small, and the jacket was very oversized on me. But my dad had one similar and he wanted us to match,” she said.
When her mom saw Swift wearing it Beasley started sleuthing. She found the eBay order from August, saw Falconer’s name on it, Googled him and found his Instagram page filled with Swift photos.
She also noticed that the coat Swift wore had the same crease on the back that her coat had.
Beasley said it is a comfortable jacket to wear, the leather worn and supple, not stiff. “It feels a little bit like a warm hug,” she said. “So I got it worn in and Taylor got to be comfy in it.”
She thinks the way Swift wore the jacket over an all-black ensemble of black short-shorts and black top “might have been a little bit of a nod to the upcoming Reputation (Taylor’s Version) because she’s been kinda hinting at it wearing more black and more leather,” she said.
She didn’t see who bought the jacket in August. “I don’t think I even saw the name on (the order) because my dad does most of the eBay stuff,” she said.
“If I would have, I would have been anticipating every Chiefs game. I probably would have been looking for her to wearing the jacket. But this way works well too. It was a nice surprise.
“I didn’t want to get too excited prematurely, but once we saw the stylist’s name on the order we felt like we had permission to get excited.”
She was careful to put all the pieces together before sharing her story with fellow Swifties.
“I wanted to be 100% sure before I told anyone because that’d be a little embarrassing, right, if someone figured out that wasn’t the case. So I made sure to dot all my I’s, cross all my T’s and make sure it was real. And then I started telling everyone,” she said.
“I mostly was just calling my friends, freaking out. They couldn’t even tell what I was saying at first because I was just screaming unintelligibly.”
She posted a video on her TikTok and Instagram. When she went to bed, the TikTok had 50 views. When she woke up Tuesday morning, it had more than 40,000.
“Once it all happened I started thinking maybe I shouldn’t have sold it because now it seems special,” Beasley said. “But if I hadn’t sold it, this wouldn’t have happened, so I’m really glad that I did. Because this is the coolest story ever.”
She’s been a Swift fan for so long that she has shared the passion with two generations in her family.
She used to listen to Swift’s music with her grandmother, her best friend who died two years ago. “So it’s bittersweet knowing that I can’t share this exciting story with her, but she’s looking down on me cheering me right now,” she said.
And now her 16-year-old cousin is a Swiftie, too. They went to the first of Swift’s Eras Tour shows at Arrowhead last summer where they gave surprise guest (and former Swift boyfriend) Taylor Lautner friendship bracelets.
Beasley has a picture of herself, wearing a Swift T-shirt, holding her then-newborn niece in her arms at the hospital. “So it’s like a full circle moment,” Beasley said. “Taylor brings everybody together.”
(Trivia side note: Beasley’s cousin, who lives in Springfield, goes to the same high school Chappell Roan attended.)
She wore the jacket to one of her first Chiefs games with her dad.
“As a Chiefs family, those memories of going to the game together are super special. And to think about that memory from over 20 years ago, and then this new memory, the excitement of seeing Taylor wear the jacket, it is extremely special,” she said.
“And if I could say anything to Taylor I would thank her for wearing it and wearing it so well, and giving me this awesome story that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
She has watched the clothes and accessories Swift wears to Chiefs games go viral “and it’s just crazy that little things like this can make someone’s entire day, or my entire year. The impact she’s made on so many people’s lives is just insane.”
Someone on TikTok told her that since Swift rarely, if ever, wears anything twice, she should ask for the jacket back.
“And I was like, girl, I would love to ask for it back, but I don’t know how in the world I would get in contact with Miss Taylor Swift to ask her,” she said.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 1:00 PM with the headline "‘Too crazy to be true!’ Taylor Swift’s retro Chiefs coat once belonged to JoCo Swiftie."
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