Taylor Swift's new tour has a New Bedford connection. Here's how.

NEW BEDFORD – From a dollhouse cameo in HBO’s “The Gilded Age” to staging miniature murder scenes in an ABC docu-series, furniture from Flip This Dollhouse is now being featured in Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour.”

“I had to do my own research to figure out who it was at first,” said Nathaniel Ellis, owner of the dollhouse shop in Kilburn Mill. “And when I realized who it could be, I was numb.”

In November, Ellis said he was approached by someone who needed to buy dollhouse furniture for a music video for a major artist, but couldn’t disclose any details because they signed a strict non-disclosure agreement.

“He says, I can't tell you who this is going to be until it's released. But I can tell you that it's a huge name, and everyone's gonna see this video,” Ellis said.

The designer sent Ellis photos of real-life furniture that he was looking for in miniature form.

More:These Food Network competitors are opening two places in Greater New Bedford. Here's where

“I did a presentation for him. I grabbed everything in my shop that looked similar and set it all up in like little room vignettes,” he said.

Putting the ‘Taylor Swift’ pieces together

After the items were purchased, Ellis said he did some research and started to put the puzzle pieces together to figure out the artist.

“I'm like, I think it's Taylor Swift. I just kept finding more and more evidence, but never got confirmation from him,” Ellis said, adding he’s been listening to her new album on repeat since.

“One of her last music videos was for a song called ‘Anti-Hero,’ and some of the furniture in that video was what he asked for in miniature, so I felt it was a strong possibility.”

Last week, Ellis’ suspicions were confirmed when he saw photos featuring his furniture appear during the “Bad Blood” segment of Swift’s concert. However, he soon discovered that the scene features everything burning to the ground in a fiery video.

“I didn't even cringe,” he said with a laugh. “Some people would cringe over that. And I didn't. I know, like I’m the dollhouse rescuer and I shouldn't be burning dollhouse furniture. But I was just like, so excited that I didn't care.

“It’s Taylor Swift, she can do whatever she wants!”

A reality show maybe in-the-works?

Ellis says, since opening his business 11 years ago, he has rented out dollhouses occasionally to a couple different productions in the past.

“Dollhouses bring people so much joy," Ellis said. "It's about handmade wooden crafts. It's nostalgia. It's its architecture, its interior design."

More:'The Voice' contestant to lead New Bedford Festival Theatre's 'The Wiz' in April.

Ellis said he's been in love with dollhouses for 20 years. “I just started collecting dollhouses and fixing them up and flipping them... and then decorating it, staging it perfectly.”

Ellis, who is an interior designer, said he's one of the very few dollhouse shops left in the country. "There used to be many more. But what happened is it was a pretty big hobby in the '70s, '80s. And then in the '90s electronics took over,” he added.

In December 2021, Ellis was approached by a production company that produces reality shows for cable and streaming platforms such as Netflix.

“The pieces are still moving around, but I can’t wait to talk more about this with everyone when I can,” he hinted with excitement.

Standard-Times staff writer Seth Chitwood can be reached at schitwood@s-t.com. Follow him on twitter: @ChitwoodReports. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Taylor Swift's 'The Era Tour' features New Bedford miniature furniture