Starting a Fashion Newsletter in This Economy

One might say this newsletter is... Fashionably late

Back in October, I started this newsletter. I sent out two or three newsletters, and then I never looked at my Substack again—until now. I really wanted to make it work, but when I started my Substack, I had way too much stuff on my plate.

I’m a journalism grad student, and because of that, I didn’t feel particularly inspired to write just for the fun of it. The thing is, though, I really love writing. That’s why I decided to pursue a master’s degree in journalism in the first place.

Moreover, there are so, so many well-dressed people living in the city. Although I'm constantly inspired by the stories I see within each and every well-dressed New Yorker’s outfit, it felt like I was being overstimulated with style inspiration. It was just too distracting for me to tap into my own personal style, which resulted in a lot of decision paralysis when I tried to get dressed in the mornings.

Those two things—writing and exploring the subject of personal style—were supposed to be the very foundation of this newsletter. So, yeah, it’s honestly not surprising that I wasn’t able to keep up with the newsletter.

I remember reading Otegha Uwagba’s newsletter in which she bluntly states that “There are already enough shopping newsletters.” She writes that she has “a real aversion to the idea of putting out content for the sake of content’s sake.”

Uwagba is a writer I personally and professionally look up to. While it probably wasn’t intended to be a gatekeeping mechanism (a concept widely discussed in journalism), I honestly felt a little demotivated in attempting to establish my fashion newsletter—with a follower count of zero nonetheless—after reading that.

But here we are, back at it again, less than three months after failing my first newsletter attempt!

As I’m graduating soon, I have really been thinking a lot about how journalists and writers are in a constant loop of striving for institutional approval.

Pitching article after article to renowned publishers, hoping that some high-status editor somewhere will take a chance on one of our pieces is a really scary thought to me. I think life is way too short to work your a$$ off to establish a polished portfolio with quotes from the right publications and still have low prospects of getting a job paying a subsistence wage… So getting back into Substack is kind of my way of silently protesting the industry (even if I’m the only one aware of it).

To finish this post off, here’s my very first OOTD. :) I’ll be back with the next letter Sunday, January 14 @ 1 PM EST / 7 PM CET. Thank you so much for reading!

Emma xx