Reasons Not To Start A Newsletter

And what to expect from this one.

• There are already enough shopping newsletters. Even as someone who absolutely loves clothes there’s only one that I actually read regularly (it’s Leandra Medine Cohen’s btw).

• There are already too many emails! And I think we can all agree that emails are bad.

• Having previously written a weekly newsletter for around 5 years (RIP to The Roundup) I know all too well that producing a regular newsletter can sometimes feel like a real slog. You start out all excited and enthusiastic about all these great ideas you want to share with the world, and on the days where you have lots to say, having a newsletter in which to say it all feels GREAT. But on the days where you have a million and one things to do and you feel like you’re scraping the Internet/the barrel/the depths of your soul for #content, having to sit down and write a newsletter that, truthfully, no one even asked for (!!!) can feel like absolute hell.

• I have a real aversion to the idea of putting out content for the sake of content’s sake, which is something I think happens alot on Substack.

• I worry that having a regular newsletter will start to feel like Work, and I already feel like I have enough of that to be perfectly honest (which if you’re new to these parts is mainly writing). For the past year or so I’ve been very deliberately cutting back on certain types of work in order to make more time for various writing projects. I’ve cut back on journalism – which I wish I didn’t have to! – in order to free up time, so it feels downright absurd to be choosing to add something into the mix that I can’t even justify as being ‘work’.

And yet here I am. Why? Why am I doing this?

This is me btw - hi!

Because I just really love clothes guys. I love clothes, and I want to talk about them, and I think good clothes are made to be bought – I just don’t think (for the sake of my fiscal health) that all of that buying necessarily needs to be done by me. So I thought I’d share all the clothes I love, with you.

I’ve actually been um-ing and aah-ing over whether to commit to a shopping and style Substack for ages now, and it wasn’t until a friend suggested I just send one longer monthly email (as opposed to the twice weekly barrage of content that seems to be par for the course on Substack) that I saw a way of making it work for me – and most importantly, keeping it fun.

So what can you expect from Add To Wishlist?

Glad you asked! Here’s the plan:

Once a month I'll be dropping by your inbox with a digest of cool things to buy – perhaps things I have bought, or want to buy, or would buy if I were to win the lottery/marry a billionaire. There will be links to said items, and photos. Occasionally I'll also share some broader thoughts on my approach to style. How to shop. Where to shop. I will never tell you what not to wear (mainly because that's probably already been trademarked by Trinny and Susannah, but also because following your personal taste is very important!), but I might occasionally tell you what not to buy, on account of it being too expensive, too cheap, too basic, or too on-trend.

A few times in my life, people have told me (lovingly) that I’m bougie, and while I usually respond by insisting that I’m “not bougie, I just like nice things”, in all honesty that’s kind of a lie. I am a bit bougie, and given this newsletter is intended to be a reflection of my own personal taste, I’ll be sharing a mix of high and low(ish.. high street as opposed to fast fashion) picks, with an emphasis on interesting, good quality clothes that you’ll hopefully love and wear for many years to come. I’m aiming for a good spread of inexpensive items, mid-range brands and fantasy splurges. 

Still, as much as I like nice things, I also really like scoring a bargain on a nice thing - I love ferreting out a good designer sale/pre-loved/outlet bargain, and so I’ll be throwing in plenty of those (and do look out for a future newsletter on how to find designer bargains year round, not just during The Sales).

And finally, I’ll also include some interiors stuff from time to time, given I’m on the home stretch of renovating my flat, and about to (slowly) start decorating and furnishing it.

How this is going to work…

Unlike many (most?) Substacks, this newsletter will only be available to paid subscribers, defying every single thing I’ve ever read or been told about “how to grow a following” on Substack. I’ve made that decision partly because I don’t mind keeping this newsletter small, and actually rather like the idea of having an insider-only newsletter going out to a select few (I also don’t much feel like broadcasting my looser, more casual writing to every corner of the world wide web anyway). Also, I’m 33, and that’s too old to be writing for free on the Internet. I also realised that if I’m sharing vintage or one-off pieces, or items that are low in stock (which I intend to – fastest fingers first!) then it probably makes sense for fewer people to have access to this newsletter anyway, and for the people who do have access to those picks to be the ones who’ve paid for it.

So if you stay on the free list, you’ll get a little preview each month of the goodies, and the occasional public post from time to time. Maybe you’ll change your mind! Maybe you won’t, and that’s fine too.

If all of that sounds good to you, go ahead and upgrade to the paid list below. 

The first monthly edition will be hitting inboxes this coming Monday, and as a little launch treat, if you sign up for an annual subscription by midnight on Sunday 24th September, you'll get a lifetime discount of 10% (that means when your subscription auto-renews in a year’s time, you’ll still get a discount of 10%. In fact you’ll get that discount until either I die or you die, whichever happens first. That’s what ‘lifetime’ means babe).

Okay, enough for now. Thank you for reading – and welcome to Add To Wishlist :)