Taylor Swift has been in full squad mode lately — and Tuesday night in New York City was peak proof of that. The pop megastar stepped out at Via Carota, a beloved Italian trattoria tucked into the West Village, to celebrate her longtime friend Lena Dunham’s 40th birthday. And the guest list was, to put it simply, a lot.
Swift arrived alongside her longtime pal Ashley Avignone and joined a small but seriously A-list group that included Girls co-star Andrew Rannells, model and author Emily Ratajkowski, and Ratajkowski’s boyfriend — French film director Romain Gavras. Dunham’s husband Luis Felber was also there to ring in the milestone.
Swift leaned into a preppy, almost bridal aesthetic for the evening, wearing a pleated white mockneck minidress paired with a long black hair ribbon. She was photographed holding an orange-hued beverage as she smiled next to Rannells in a group selfie that Dunham took at the dinner table. It was Rannells who originally shared the image to his Instagram Stories — and from there, the internet took care of the rest.
A fun detail that Taylor Swift fans immediately clocked: Via Carota is just blocks from Cornelia Street, where Swift famously lived during one of her most beloved eras — the one that inspired the track of the same name on Lover. Whether intentional or not, the location gave the whole evening an extra layer of nostalgia.
Also spotted: Dunham clutching a pink lava lamp in paparazzi photos as the group filed out of the restaurant — apparently someone’s idea of a birthday gift, and honestly, a very on-brand one.
The friendship between Swift and Dunham stretches back well over a decade. The two were first publicly photographed together at the 2013 Grammy Awards, and the bond has only deepened since. In Dunham’s recently released memoir Famesick, she gave Swift one of its most heartfelt shoutouts: “TayTay — you sing the songs I wrote this book to, the stories that pulled these stories out of me, the music that makes the whole world feel seen.”
The evening also brought together Emily Ratajkowski, who starred in Dunham’s 2025 Netflix series Too Much, and Romain Gavras — who has his own celebrity romantic history, having previously dated both Rita Ora and Dua Lipa, making him arguably the most quietly interesting person at the table.
Swift is currently in New York between European commitments ahead of what fans are speculating may be an imminent new music announcement — she’s been spotted almost exclusively in black and white outfits across recent public appearances, which the Swiftie internet has naturally already dissected to within an inch of its life.
