Dear Reader

Sincerely, A Published Author (ME-E-E!)

Full warning this is about to get sappy.

I write this post in the past. It feels like a bit of a fallacy, to talk about how excited I am now that this book is out in the world and know that as my fingers type these words that it’s still a secret that I alone keep contained. Bottled. The face of a lover hidden in a locket. 

One commonality amongst writers is that we are often introverts by nature. We write to feel. We write to understand. In order to do so, we craft sentences and pull images from the fragmented mosaic in our minds. It’s a love language. It’s a necessity. It’s an archaeological dig site in progress, not knowing what you might unearth until it’s been freed from your caverns of consciousness. There have been a number of occasions I’ve come out of a flurried writing haze to see a page full of sentences I had no idea were longing to be let out. Where did that come from? I wonder. Who knew I was good at this! I might exclaim in surprise when I end up liking something I’ve written.

But, as writers, what we rarely consider is what happens next. Which is that someone else might read what we’ve written. And that someone else will form thoughts about what they’ve read. Shudder. The process of publication is something akin to standing at the head of the class during show and tell, vulnerable prey with tender belly exposed, praying that your classmates like what you’ve brought. Well, truthfully, I feel like my entire existence has been like that. Hoping to be liked so you attempt to be as pleasing and pleasant as possible. Hoping to be understood without wanting at all to be perceived. Carefully threading the eye of the needle that makes every decision as a woman a game of minute target practice. Too far in any direction - a catastrophic mistake. 

It’s made me understand even more intrinsically the level of bravery it takes to attach your name to a piece of art. To stand behind the words, the observations, the feelings that you’ve put to page. I’m excited. I’m terrified. I’m experiencing the whiplash of womanhood which lands us exclusively at either end of the confidence spectrum: audaciously full of it or horrifically absent of any of it. I anxiously oscillate between two modes. 

The first is the full confidence that I’ve written something I am truly so proud of and I think is the best possible iteration of a book on this topic that I would not have trusted anyone else to write with the same level of care, expertise, and genuine emotion that I believe I have. 

The second is what if I’ve written something that makes me the subject of internet ire that gets spliced, stitched, reposted, and retagged into viral video essays or character limit-fuelled threads about what I’ve said and I’m laughed at and ridiculed off the digital space forever and ever. 

Seriously, brain? CHILL. PLEASE. I BEG.

This book explores how Taylor’s fashion and music work in tandem to communicate a message about her art. As this generation’s most prolific songwriter, we’re most familiar with her confessional, emotional songs about her life. But her style is the other half of that story. The visual half that iconifies every era and makes moments memorable. Fashion is woven into the fabric of Taylor Swift’s discography. From little black dresses and faded blue jeans on her self-titled debut to a best dress worn in the rain on Fearless. Spinning like a girl in a brand new dress on RED that become wine stained dresses that can’t be worn anymore on 1989 to dresses we bought just to take off on reputation. From Lover’s ripped up prom dresses, to evermore’s dresses worn only at midnight. Even the act of dressing for revenge makes an appearance on Midnights. This all comes from the mind, heart, closet, and pen of a girl in a dress who wrote the songs of our lives. I wrote Taylor Swift Style to be an analytical visual time capsule of all the versions of herself that Taylor has embodied through her fashion. 

Another theme in this book is the importance of fashion in the formation of identity. This topic felt important for me to explore as a young woman. So much of growing up and figuring things out manifests in how we present ourselves to the world, most often through clothes. Our clothes send a message about who we are (or want to be). Our values, our interests, our taste. Traditionally feminine-coded interests like fashion and shopping were marketed to young girls like me as foundational, gendered hobbies. Only to be subsequently weaponized to dismiss us as shallow and vapid. The industry created self-sustaining ouroboros to commodify and then ridicule the very things we were told to like, manufacturing a market that commercialised our joy and our shame. I wanted to write a book that embraced fashion for how we can use it as a beautiful method of exploration, expression, and empowerment. 

Beyond this, I wanted to write a book as a reciprocal love letter to Taylor and the love letters that her discography has symbolised for me. Being three years younger than her, Taylor’s album cycles timed out to what I was experiencing at that moment. Like bobbing in the ripples behind a boat, I’ve benefited from growing up in her wake. I often think about how every step of Taylor’s career she’s consistently sought to strengthen her connection with fans and created spaces for us to connect with one another. Her words create worlds for us to live in. Worlds that she created first to make sense of her own and then, by extension, let us make sense of ours. The more personal and insular she makes a lyric, the more communal the experience feels. Similarly, her fashion gives fans a visual way to signal our fandom. Her style is often an intentional choice that not only serves her personal style preferences but that feels more exciting because it’s more accessible (and thus replicable) for fans to copy + paste. When I see someone wearing an item of clothing I know of through reporting Taylor’s fashion on my blog, it’s like a silent acknowledgement that we’re part of something together. 

It’s been an honour to decode these fashionable communication clues for the last 13 years on my blog and for the last two years condensing them into what I hope is a definitive and thoughtful compendium in Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras. I had the time of my life fighting dragons (aka writers block) to bring you this book that I truly hope will never go out of style. 

A reminder of how bestseller lists work!

Now that we’re past the pre-ordering period (because the book is, somehow, OUT) it’s time to focus on first week sales which are the vital other component that comprises bestseller list chances.

The “week” of sales runs from 12:01a Sunday to 11:59p on Saturday. Once the sales week is complete, bookstores across the country submit their sale data which will influence bestseller lists. Bestseller lists will then aggregate first week sales PLUS all preorders made in the lead up to the book. It all gets bundled together as the final tally of your sales. You’re seeing the importance now of preordering right?

The list of bestseller titles are typically announced on Wednesday. Once the window for the first week of sales closes on Saturday, October 12, we will know if this book that could made it onto the list the following week.

I hope you’ll consider grabbing a copy from an online retailer or heading out in person decked with armfuls of friendship bracelets and your best dress to your local Target, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, or favourite local independent store to pick up this book. I hope you feel its heft. I hope you marvel at the sparkle of its gilded pages and front cover. I hope you squeal over the details of the design (the chronological eras gutter, the TSS monogram, the TSS green endpapers). 

Writing Taylor Swift Style was a journey through the past selves of both author and muse over the last 18 years. A journey of self to research, to rediscover, and to reclaim in order to reemerge the other side. This book was mine, but I hope - more than anything that it can start a new era as yours. One to hold in your hands and to hopefully live on in your mind and heart on October 8, 2024 and beyond. 

I thank you so deeply for all your support of this book and for supporting my lifelong dream.

Sarah