a detailed timeline of taylor swift and joe alwyn’s relationship (2016–present)

april 2016: it’s speculated that they first met in LA near the intersection of sunset blvd and vine street, potentially at the bowery gastropub

at the time, joe was in LA doing reshoots for billy lynn’s long halftime walk.

it's likely that they were introduced through mutual friends. taylor spent a lot of her time in LA that spring with lily aldridge, lily is married to caleb followill, and caleb is good friends with garrett hedlund, one of joe’s billy lynn costars

the lyric 'flashback when you met me, your buzzcut and my hair bleached’ suggests they met sometime after the 15th, since that’s when taylor got her hair bleached.

there are no sightings of taylor from april 18-23 and 25-28, so she could have been doing anything around LA.

2 may 2016: taylor and joe both attend the met gala.

joe was part of the burberry table for the event, having previously attended the 2016 burberry fashion show earlier in the year.

1 june 2016: people magazine announces taylor and calvin’s break up

13 june 2016: TMZ reports that taylor has rented a townhouse on cornelia street in new york, whilst her own apartment is undergoing renovations

14 june 2016: taylor and tom hiddleston are seen in rhode island together, and the sun breaks the news of their relationship the next day

27 july 2016: taylor and tom go out to dinner in LA after returning from australia. this ends up being the last time they’re papped together.

afterwards, tom flies back to continue filming thor: ragnarok while taylor goes to nashville, and then the hamptons

14 august 2016: tom is seen boarding taylor's plane in LA. it lands in rhode island, and articles are published stating she greeted him at the airport, but they aren't papped together.

16 august 2016: the september issue of vogue us is published. joe is featured in an interview and a photoshoot with gigi hadid

29 august 2016: taylor is in nashville for jury duty.

her journal entry from this day suggests that she and tom had probably broken up during or shortly after their two days together in RI, and she was dreading the public's reaction to yet another breakup

31 august 2016: taylor is seen out and about in NYC

some fans theorise this was the night taylor and joe met up at a 'dive bar on the east side’ (1st verse of delicate) before going back to cornelia street (1st verse of cornelia street) and hooking up for the first time (2nd verse of delicate)

the full theory:

additional thoughts:

regardless of the exact date, taylor said at the rep secret sessions that she and joe kept in touch after they first met in spring 2016, and then later on they met up again and things turned romantic

unlike her tribeca apartment, the cornelia street rental has a private garage which means taylor was able to enter and leave without being papped.

the floorplan also confirms that the master bedroom is on the 3rd floor, which aligns with, ‘third floor on the west side, me and you’ in the 2nd verse of delicate

years later, david aldea who owns the townhouse was interviewed by inside edition.

he was asked whether he ever met joe while taylor was staying there, and he said that "a gentleman never speaks of such matters"

2 september 2016: taylor starts writing gorgeous on guitar in the cornelia street rental

6 september 2016: people magazine reports that taylor and tom have broken up, stating that "it was an amicable split"

6 september 2016: taylor starts writing the chorus of king of my heart on guitar, in the cornelia street townhouse.

7 september 2016: taylor is seen leaving the gym in NYC

9 september 2016: she's papped leaving the gym again

9 september 2016: backstage at a tommy hilfiger show, gigi tells a reporter that taylor has started working on music and is "starting to go back to work in the studio again."

12 september 2016: martha talks to e! news about taylor's new music.

14 september 2016: gigi says in an interview with ES magazine that she and taylor both have a thing for british guys and "like the british sense of charm"

16 september 2016: in the morning, taylor and andrea are seen leaving her tribeca place and getting into an suv.

it's pretty clear they ended up going to the airport, because later that day, she works on gorgeous in her nashville apartment, 2 weeks after she started writing it

the making of a song video shows that gorgeous originally had different lyrics that were scrapped later on.

fans speculate that this version could be about taylor and joe meeting again in the summer, so the boyfriend she hasn’t seen in a while would be tom.

17 september 2016: taylor attends the music city wine and food festival in nashville

on the same day, she changes the boyfriend line in gorgeous to “he’s in the club doing i don’t know what.”

fans believe that this lyric refers to calvin, which means taylor probably reworked the song to be about meeting joe for the first time back in april

19 september 2016: at conway studios in LA, taylor finishes writing gorgeous with max and shellback (2 days after the nashville festival)

19 september 2016: on the same day, taylor also works on king of my heart, 13 days since she first started writing it

19 september 2016: a video later posted to the swift life was filmed on this day, where taylor talks about going into the studio for the first time in a while and starting TS6.

19 september: joe attends a burberry show during london fashion week.

20 september 2016: taylor writes the bridge of king of my heart

21 september 2016: taylor records komh at conway studios in LA with max and shellback

28 september 2016: taylor is seen leaving her NYC apartment

we know that this was the day taylor and joe officially got together / became exclusive because they consider it to be their anniversary.

fans have also theorised that this was the day the cruel summer bridge happened.

in the lover album prologue, taylor refers to cruel summer as a song about confessions of love on a drunken night out.

if we go by this, it's possible that "i love you ain't that the worst thing you ever heard / he looks up grinning like a devil" happened the same time as "i'm drunk in the back of the car"

however, it could've also happened at the bowery hotel after they had left the bar

in may, joe and odell beckham jr were papped leaving the bowery on their way to the met gala.

it's pretty likely that the studio had put him up there for billy lynn reshoots and promo, and he stayed there whenever he was in NYC all through spring-fall 2016

deuxmoi also posted a blind about taylor and joe being seen at the lobby bar in sep/oct 2016. obviously it might not be reliable but it aligns with what we already know

1 october 2016: taylor takes photos with fans in nashville.

4 october 2016: joe attends the IWC schaffhausen dinner in london.

12 october 2016: taylor and joe attend a private kings of leon concert together at le poisson rouge lounge in the west village.

afterwards, they go to an afterparty held at the bowery hotel and meet up at the lovers of today bar.

14 october: billy lynn’s long halftime walk premieres at the new york film festival. joe walks the red carpet and does some promo.

15 october: joe does more interviews with the rest of the billy lynn cast in NYC

22 october 2016: taylor plays her only show of 2016 at the US F1 grand prix in austin, texas.

she had a cold and stopped midway through the show to blow her nose. a few weeks later, joe also had a cold when he was doing interviews in taiwan

23 october 2016: taylor attends drake’s 30th birthday party in LA.

several media outlets theorise about a possible relationship between them but the rumours are denied straight away.

late october 2016: taylor wrote and recorded delicate around this time, as her gold temporary tattoos can be seen in the making of a song video

28-31 october 2016: laineygossip reports that taylor went from LA to NYC, and then from NYC to london and stayed there for 2 days.

taylor stays under the radar and isn't papped. fans theorise that she's back with tom, but in hindsight she almost certainly went to see joe.

31 october 2016: taylor is back in the US and dresses up as deadpool for halloween.

she throws a small party at her cornelia street rental that gigi, martha, kennedy rayé, lily donaldson and camila cabello all attend.

a year later, camila talks to jimmy fallon about the cat lady costume she wore to the party.

she says that at one point, "two attractive guys come in, and so i just went to the bathroom and i had this black turtleneck and pants under, and i just like took [the costume] off."

11 november 2016: taylor, andrea, claire winter, eliotte, este and alana haim go to joe's movie premiere in LA.

19 november 2016: this polaroid of taylor with her guitar, captioned “how would you feel having a song written about you?” was taken.

it's later included in one of the reputation magazines and credited to frosty crew photography aka joe.

23 november 2016: taylor is spotted walking around in NYC with kelsea ballerini. this ends up being the last time she's papped for nearly 8 weeks.

24 november 2016: taylor spends thanksgiving in RI with her family, as well as todrick, jari, lily and martha.

after thanksgiving, taylor takes a step back from the public eye and spends time with joe in london, which is supported by the mention of late nov in the ciwyw bridge

it's pretty likely that this video (later included in miss americana) was taken around this time, as she's driving on the left side of the road and they're in the uk

13 december 2016: taylor spends her 27th birthday in london, and we know this because she later posts a video of her cake, which was from a london bakery.

as we all know, taylor got the tiffany & co j necklace for her 27th and basically didn't take it off for 2 whole years.

she recently wore it in the TGLAD spotify video, which was filmed in 2020.

december 2016: shortly before christmas, taylor returns to nashville from the uk and spends time with her family, abigail and lily aldridge

25 december 2016: taylor spends christmas day in missouri, and she and scott visit a 96-year-old fan together.

it's also the first time we see taylor wearing the j necklace.

29 december 2016: a polaroid of taylor later included in the reputation magazines, was taken on this day.

later on, fans notice that it's captioned with three x’s, which could be referring to the three months that taylor and joe have spent together so far.

31 december 2016: taylor and joe celebrate NYE together and throw a party at her london rental.

joe's friends post photos from the party, and the theme seemingly had something to do with snowman costumes and pink/purple wigs??

a blurry polaroid of taylor and joe from this night can be found in the rep magazines.

taylor later talks about the party in song explanations for new year's day, at both the reputation iheartradio session in 2017 and a chicago fan event in 2018.

these photos (later included in the rep magazines) of taylor painting patrick's wall were probably taken around this time.