Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn brought Lena Dunham along for their NYC date night

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn are currently in New York City ahead of the MTV  Video Music Awards, and they’re making time to see friends.

On August 24, the Daily Mail published photos of the couple leaving the private members club Casa Cipriani in NYC earlier in the week. The pair were joined by Girls creator Lena Dunham, one of the holdovers from Swift’s highly publicized Girl Squad era. 

In the photos (which can be seen here), Swift is wearing a sweet floral sundress with buttons along the side while Alywn complements his girlfriend (and rumored fiancé) in a white button-up. Dunham can be seen in a gray top and layered gold jewellery.

Taylor Swift and Lena Dunham have been friends for many years and remain close confidants when it comes to their work and private lives. While Dunham was included in Swift’s 1989 tour and featured in her “Bad Blood” music video, Swift was a bridesmaid in Dunham’s 2021 wedding. In January 2022, Swift and Alwyn both received a special thank-you in the end credits of Dunham’s film Sharp Stick.

“They are just really great friends of mine who watched a really early cut of the film and gave me notes,” Dunham said in an IMDB interview. “They’re both just really interesting, perceptive people. Taylor’s been one of my close friends for a really long time and Joe is an actor who I actually ended up working with on a project that I shot just a few months after this.”

In 2019, Swift opened up about letting go of some members of her “squad” in a personal essay for Elle. “Something about ’We’re in our young twenties!’ hurls people together into groups that can feel like your chosen family,” she wrote. “And maybe they will be for the rest of your life. Or maybe they’ll just be your comrades for an important phase, but not forever. It’s sad but sometimes when you grow, you outgrow relationships. You may leave behind friendships along the way, but you’ll always keep the memories.”

In the essay Swift reflected on some of the insecurities that fed into her desire to publicise her large group of friends. “Never being popular as a kid was always an insecurity for me,” she said. “Even as an adult, I still have recurring flashbacks of sitting at lunch tables alone or hiding in a bathroom stall, or trying to make a new friend and being laughed at.”

She continued, “In my twenties I found myself surrounded by girls who wanted to be my friend. So I shouted it from the rooftops, posted pictures, and celebrated my newfound acceptance into a sisterhood, without realising that other people might still feel the way I did when I felt so alone.”

Ultimately, Swift remains close only with the “the ones who stuck around” during tough times like her public feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. “I learned that I have friends and fans in my life who don’t care if I’m #canceled. They were there in the worst times and they’re here now.”

Swift and Alwyn are currently in the States to attend the VMAs in Newark, New Jersey, on August 28. While Alwyn won his first Grammy for his work on Swift’s masterpiece album Folklore, he is joining his girlfriend in a supporting role this time around. In July, MTV honored Swift with five nominations for her 10-minute version of “All Too Well.”

This article originally appeared on GLAMOUR US.