Taylor Swift fans are always digging for hidden meanings, and this time the Swifties are connecting her and Travis Kelce’s engagement announcement to a piece of jewelry.
Swift and Kelce, both 35, shared via Instagram on Tuesday, August 26, that they are taking the next step in their relationship. The post was set to Swift’s track “So High School,” which is inspired by her romance with the NFL star. “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married 
,” the caption read.
Eagle-eyed Swifties were quick to notice the dynamite emoji. “English teacher and gym teacher getting married. And she used the DYNAMITE EMOJI CAUSE TNT,” one user wrote via X on Tuesday, while another added, “TNT = dynamite, TNT also = taylor n travis.”
Swift debuted her famous “TNT” bracelet after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens in an NFL game in 2024, when the cameras showed her hugging Kelce. After the piece of jewelry went viral, designer Michelle Wie West weighed in on the meaning behind the design — which features 14 carat gold beads and lab-grown diamonds.
“Their relationship is dynamite. It’s just so cute,” West told Entertainment Tonight. “I hope that [Taylor] thinks it’s nice, and sparkly, and pretty and [that] ‘TNT’ [is] sentimental and cute and funny.”
West later elaborated on how she got the bracelet onto Swift’s wrist. “I messaged [Travis] and I was like, ‘Hey, we made a bracelet inspired by Taylor. We would love to just give her one,’” West told Jimmy Fallon on an episode of The Tonight Show, noting that she was inspired by Swifties’ friendship bracelet tradition on the Eras Tour and wanted to create an “upscale” version. “I don’t care what she does with it. I just want it to be given to her.”
Swift and Kelce began dating in summer 2023, after he publicly shared his desire to give her a friendship bracelet with his number on it at an Eras Tour stop. While Travis wasn’t successful at the time, the sweet shoutout to Swift on his and brother Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast got her attention.
“It was such a wild romantic gesture to just be like, ‘I want to date you!’ At first when I looked at it, I was like, ‘This dude didn’t get a meet-and-greet and he’s making it everyone’s problem,’” Swift recalled during her record-breaking appearance on the “New Heights” podcast earlier this month. “He didn’t even reach out to our management! When this podcast came out I was like, ‘Did he ever reach out to be in the tents or did we know he was in the building?’ He came with Patrick Mahomes and he thought that because he knows the elevator lady that he could just talk to her about getting [backstage]. That’s how it works in 1973.”
Designer of Taylor Swift’s ‘TNT’ Bracelet Shares Meaning Behind Accessory
She continued, “This was more like I was in an ’80s John Hughes movie and he was just standing outside of my window with a boombox just being like, ‘I want to date you! Do you want to date me!?’ So I was like, ‘If this guy isn’t crazy, which is a big if, this is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about what I’ve been wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.’”
