Take 2 : Double English
The newsletter formerly called Beauty Chest
Hello and welcome to my newly relaunched Substack, a bi-monthly newsletter covering subjects I like to read and write about: true and meaningful stories, inspirational people, fashion, beauty, art, history, and pop culture.
I started on this platform as a reader in January 2023. A year later, I launched a newsletter called ‘Beauty Chest’, primarily to hold myself accountable and get into a regular writing cadence.
The original name was inspired by a birthday present I was once given: an ornate vanity case (also called a beauty chest) with multiple drawers and compartments to hold and sort cosmetics, makeup, and hair accessories.
As a former fashion model, I know one or two things about all that fluff, so my intention for Beauty Chest was to write about beauty and aging into mid-life (doesn’t that sound better than middle age?!) and delve into deeper matters relating to the beautiful chest (heart) inside every one of us.
I started writing stories when I was five years old and at school, my favourite subject was Creative Writing, which still applies today: I am creative and I write. I was a bit of a nerd about how thrilled I would be to see the words ‘Double English’ on my school timetable (two back-to-back lessons in English Language and English Literature), so I decided to use them as the new name of this newsletter once I realised how many fashion and beauty experts are here on Substack.
Even though I’m not at traditional school anymore (thank goodness—ten years at two all-girls English boarding schools felt interminable), I remain ever curious. Life never ceases to amaze me—the ugliness and the beauty—the pain and the glory—the impermanence of everything.
I love getting older and wiser. I’ve found that the more conscious I become, the further I evolve, and the better I create. Like me, Double English is a still-developing work-in-progress, slowly blooming, always learning.
Hello, Petra. (not Petra Kvitova, but my Petra reference, after many years of playing and teaching tennis). Just discovered your Beauty Chest - my little strongbox of memories is Anglo-American via New England, years in LA and now France. Hope to enjoy your posts.
Glad to find you here, Petra. I'm thinking that perhaps "beauty chest" has a meaning unique to UK. In the US of my late boomer stage, there were special pieces of luggage called a "make-up case." Is that the same thing? Mine was Samsonite and beige, though I never used it. Very popular among beauty pageant contestants. Is that similar?