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, below is a bit of background and why I hope you’ll subscribe to this newsletter.
What is Taylor Swift Style?
Taylor Swift Style began in 2011 as a fashion blog providing readers with shoppable designer information on Taylor’s style exacts alongside insightful fashion commentary from a longtime fan and journalist.
While I’ve been faithfully blogging since 2011, I’ve also been writing some form of a newsletter since 2019. The newsletter gives me the room, editorially-speaking, to stretch.
The content here is meant to be both more exclusive and also more intimate. The name Liner Notes was inspired by Taylor embedding secret messages in the liner notes of her earliest albums. My hope is that you’re inspired to read with a closer and more careful (+ critical) eye. To lean in. To unpack. And then, most importantly, to find joy with other people who take the time to decode the messages they find. A real ‘iykyk’ amongst close friends. For those who come for the copy, stay for the comments.
The Liner Notes newsletter will publish at least once a week, sometimes two — or more if news is moving Swiftly (pun intended). About half of my content focuses on Taylor (like this in-depth review of The Tortured Poets Department, this primer on her previous appearances at the Met Gala, and the *ahem* reputation of Versace’s Medusa). The other half on a bit of everything else (like how I’m defining my personal style and my travel diary through Paris).
Who are you?
It’s me. Hi! My name is Sarah Chapelle. 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, USA Today, Elle, and more.
I launched my blog in October 2011 when I was just a university student studying to become a journalist. It 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 - was published on October 8, 2024 and became an instant New York Times best-seller. 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.
I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada and live here with my husband and cat. A fun fact? I attended all three Eras Tour shows in Vancouver. It was the thrill of my life to see her close out such a momentous tour in my very own backyard.
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:
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.
For $5 a month or $31 a year (I had to pay homage to 13 somehow, didn’t I? This gives you 12 months worth of content for the price of 6 months!) you will support all of Liner Notes. 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.
I am so grateful for those loyal TSSers who have been with me through so many eras. You changed my life when you made my words matter. To become a founding member is a testament to your belief in a project that was really something, not just the idea of something, and this next chapter of Liner Notes. For $130, you’ll get a special “founding member” icon next to your name when you comment. And I hope to find other ways to show my appreciation as we navigate all that Substack can offer this community.
