Taylor Swift Cavorts With Transgender Model Laith Ashley In New ‘Lavender Haze’ Video

A new Taylor Swift music video just dropped featuring transgender-identifying model Laith Ashley as Swift’s love interest.

The highly anticipated music video for “Lavender Haze” shows the Grammy Award-winning singer enjoying a new relationship, all in a smoky purple backdrop. The video, which was written and directed by Swift, shows Ashley in the main role next to Swift as the two lounge in bed and cuddle at a party.

“The ‘Lavender Haze’ video is out now. There is lots of lavender. There is lots of haze,” Swift shared on social media Friday morning with a teaser clip.

“There is my incredible costar @laith_ashley who I absolutely adored working with. This was the first video I wrote out of the 3 that have been released,” she continued. “This one really helped me conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights, like a sultry sleepless 70’s fever dream. Hope you like it.”

Ashley also shared about the video on social media. “Thank you so much [Taylor Swift] for allowing me to play a small part in your story. You are brilliant and this is an experience I will never forget,” the model shared. 

“Still at a loss for words. Trying to gather myself and my thoughts. I am so grateful,” Ashley tweeted in a follow-up.

“Lavender Haze” is the third song off Swift’s very successful Midnights album to get a music video following videos for “Anti-Hero” and “Bejeweled.” The singer has hinted that more will be released later on.

Ashley, meanwhile, is well-known in the industry with a burgeoning modeling career. The 33-year-old has posed for Diesel and Calvin Klein, and has appeared on the cover of Out magazine, Gay Times, and Vogue France. Ashley also appeared on Caitlyn Jenner’s reality show “I Am Cait” in 2016 and was a series regular on “Strut,” a short-lived series on Oxygen following the trans modeling agency Slay.

Ashley also appeared in other music videos and on television including “RuPaul’s Drag Race Pit Crew,” “Pose,” and “Unconventional.”

Swift’s inclusion of a transgender-identifying person in the music video is part of a larger trend in Hollywood and the media to increase trans representation. Recently, the fashion brand Burberry included what appeared to be a post-op trans person posing shirtless for one of their fashion ads on Instagram.

Hollywood has also been hyping the inclusion of trans-identifying stars, using their inclusion as a badge of honor in TV and movies.