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Hi! Welcome and thank you so much for choosing to be here. It means so much you’d opt in to take part in this space of all spaces on the wide internet. If you’re new to me (hi!) and Taylor Swift Style (TSS), below is a bit of background and why I hope you’ll subscribe to this newsletter.
What is Taylor Swift Style?
TSS began in 2011 as a fashion identification site providing readers with shoppable designer information on Taylor’s style exacts alongside critically kind fashion commentary from a longtime fan and journalist.
The Taylor Swift Style newsletter publishes twice a week and has expanded to include Fashion History recaps (#youcantspellFashionHistorywithoutTSS), in-depth style analysis (Do You See The Vision?), award show prediction posts, ‘window shopping’ moodboards on current trends, and intermittent peeks into my personal life and style.
Who are you?
It’s me. Hi! My name is Sarah Chapelle and I’m the founder of TSS. I’m a former journalist, turned bestselling author, who has found one (sick) highly niche Swift beat to become the foremost expert on all things Taylor’s style. Since starting TSS in 2011 my Swiftie style commentary has appeared in Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, USA Today, Billboard, and more.
I launched my blog in October 2011 when I was just a university student studying to become a journalist. TSS represented a crossroad of many of my interests and a way to coalesce my passions for storytelling, style, and Taylor into one. My whole life I’ve loved storytelling, I’d been a fan of Taylor’s since 2006, and as I was beginning to figure out my own identity, I became enamoured with how our clothes can tell a story about our interests and our values. The blog eventually morphed from a place where I was documenting and researching Taylor’s exact fashion to also writing my critically kind thoughts on the clothes she was wearing and providing historical context about what it was she might be trying to say through her clothes as it relates to her music. It’s been one of the greatest joys of my life to carve out a digital space for a community of likeminded fans to come together and discuss our Venn diagram of passionate interests in smart, thoughtful, ways.
Thirteen(!) years after its launch, my first book - Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras - will be published October 8, 2024 and is available for preorder now. Taylor Swift Style expands upon my blog and Instagram content to provide a comprehensive and nuanced look at Taylor’s musical and fashion evolution spanning the last two decades.
What is ‘critical kindness’?
Critical kindness is an ethos that evolved organically over time but that reflects how I like to approach my captions and commentary. The internet can make nuance seem hard. Pettiness, particularly in fashion, is de rigeur. Fandom discourse is often framed as black and white. With TSS, I wanted to take a different path that expressed my thoughts on a framework of context and facts. My goal is to post about her fashion in a way that is considered and honest but not in the name of being casually cruel - if you catch my drift.
Why should I subscribe?
All those other newsletters well they’re beautiful but would they write about Taylor’s style the way I do? It’s my hope in moving to the Substack community to be able to offer both the long-form content that I’ve always loved in a space that really is conducive to critically kind conversation + comments—something that TSSers are already so known for. Here are three ways to join:
Free Subscriber
Subscribe today for free and you will receive a newsletter from me a few times a month. You can also follow along on all my TS style commentary on the blog and Instagram.
Paid Subscriber
We are entering into an exclusive relationship and that feels really special. This is for those who love a moodboard or who shamefully purchased an item on a whim and are now stuck with it and don’t know what to do. For those who listen to two hour long podcast episodes. Those who still read blogs like they're your morning paper. Those who are the liker, the commenter and - yes! - the subscriber. The 360 content reader. I know who you are because I am one, too. And to us, I want to raise a glass.
The people who read the blog post but stay for the comments. We're a fun breed.
Prediction Posts + Variants
Exclusive prediction posts not posted anywhere else
Early access to predictions posts
Extra runway picks with additional commentary
Fashion Event Coverage
Red carpet recaps for key fashion events in the calendar year
Opinions, insights, and alternative styling suggestions
Monthly Recaps
What Taylor was up to and more critically kind commentary thanks to hindsight and time
Shoppable Outfits
Moodboards on moodboards
Personal Style / Life Updates
Real life photos of my personal style
'What I Wore This Week' / OOTD posts
Packing moodboards
Book Club
Discuss our latest favourite reads
My gratitude
Cheesy, but true. Being a paid subscriber directly supports TSS and reflects your values that you think this content matters and is worth something and I can’t thank you enough for that
