Taylor Swift is here in New York. She alighted on a spring breeze that meandered east and arrived on Monday. And just like that, she was in her adoptive home. Swift could have been here all along, of course—she owns most of Tribeca and probably has a lot of tactics for coming and going as she pleases without a trace. But she’s been going out the front door on purpose, it would seem.

A countdown clock to April 26—which she first posted without comment to her Instagram on Friday, April 12—is rounding the final corner to its expiration in less than two days, when we’re likely to be given a new album, or at least a new single. What clues can we glean from these public appearances in the meantime? What sort of Groundhog Day–like signs is she signaling? Well, while “stepping out,” Swift was wearing a lot of warm tones. She wore a big red-checkered blazer from Mango to her friend Gigi Hadid’s birthday on Monday night, along with a cat purse—that is, a purse with a big cat on it. The performer wore high-waisted floral shorts earlier in the day, and her accompanying top appears to have been new merch. Her name runs up the arm, and on the front there is a large neon rose motif. Her hair was dip-dyed pink, and it doesn’t even look like an Easter-egg-dyeing episode gone wrong. It looks intentional.

And then there was Tuesday’s Time 100 Gala. She was one of the magazine’s 100 most influential people and showed up ready to influence in a pink and yellow J. Mendel gown that had sleeves borrowed directly from cartoon Belle (she removed the sleeves for her performance). All of fashion seems to be going the way of the 18th-century peasant dress, and she leaned into the look, but more so. She added a floral headpiece and a big heart-shaped ring that would make Mariah Carey jealous—or if not jealous, then at least suspicious.

Left, from Gotham/GC Images; right, by Robert Kamau/GC Images.

Yes, this is a Taylor transformed. Have you seen her Instagram page? It’s all chaste bikes and kicky bags in a Pinterest palette stolen from 2014. Ever the completist, she posted a custom 4.26 filter to her Stories on Wednesday. It’s all shimmery and pink, making Swift look like she’s stuck in some kind of sparkly snow globe. All of it—all of this—is a long way from all the snakes and the dark lipsticks of the last few years. She was a little Reputation larva, then she spent some time in her pupa, and now, here she is, a Taylor of many colors—but mostly pink—ready for her next stage, whatever she’s decided that will be.

My best guess for what’s in store for us when the countdown clock expires? An ode to her cats. This is the album for Meredith and Olivia that Swift has always wanted to write, but didn’t feel like she could.

“Stand up to your ‘haters,’” they said. “Write about your last sexy romance,” they said. And she did, and those songs were all great, we love them, but it didn’t feel quite right, you know? This album, the album for her cats, released before she appears in Cats on Broadway, is the album that will really be Tay.

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