I’m what you call a ‘native South Londoner’.

I was born in a South London hospital. Grew up in Battersea. Went to primary and secondary schools in South London. Moved to Croydon. Attended a College in South London. Went to a University in South London. Moved out to Denmark Hill. Moved again to West Norwood, then moved back and am currently residing back in South West London.

I will never leave, or ‘I WILL NEVER REMOOF’, as #BlackTwitter would say.

I love South London, and while I love to travel and would find absolutely no issue with moving outside it, when it comes to moving to East or West, forget about it. As for North London? I don’t even know what that place is so it’s not even worth mentioning tbh (kidding I love you all).

What I’m essentially saying is, I’m a South Londoner through and through, yet when I meet people for the first time, or speak to relatives, they always seem to comment on the way I speak and how ‘posh’ it is which I find hilarious as I literally grew up on an estate until the age of 14, and the only reason I probably sound the way I do is because I attended a secondary school in Westminster and probably emulated my Mother as a child, who sounds very similar to me, or…idk I DUNNO HOW TALKING WORKS.

For these photos, myself and Kaye trekked back to my old estate where I grew up: a place I haven’t been back to in almost 14 years and I felt incredibly overwhelmed and quite emotional to be back in a place full of such happy memories. The estate I grew up in was **dangerous**, if speaking objectively, however as all the neighbours looked out for each other and the kids, it was an incredibly close, tight-knit community where everyone looked out for each other.

Playsuit // Espadrille Wedges

In previous posts, I’ve frequently mentioned my child/teenhood and the troubles and trauma I experienced whilst growing up, however from the age of birth – 12 years old, I had such fond memories of our estate.

One memory that’ll always stick out for me is when myself and a couple of other kids on the estate would go roaming into random empty flats and pretend we were archeologists discovering a new land (when in reality, we accidentally tracked into a crack house with the door left open and were digging/rooting among needles and drug paraphernalia (obviously we didn’t know, we were like 7! Give us a break pls).

Every night we’d hear police sirens ringing along the main road, overhear and argument taking place in the car park or awaken to sounds of a car alarm. Life there was lit. When we moved, it took me an awfully long time to adjust to the sounds of silence at night. Where were my car alarms? Arguments? Where were the police sirens?! I know it sounds odd AF but when you grow up with so much happening around you in your environment, you do kind of get used to it, and eventually miss it once it goes away.

I took these photos opposite a patch of land where I had a fight with this bully in my year 2 class in primary school. She kept fucking with me, and I snapped. I sharpened a pencil and stabbed her through the hand with it. At the time I denied it for fear of getting into trouble, but can now, as a 29 year old woman, admit it fully with my chest. Anyway,we met up after school and had it out. Good times.

Anyway, there was no specific need for me to talk about any of this. I just wanted a nice bit of context to the photos and frankly, I wanted a CHAT OKAY IS THAT SO BAD? #ORGANICCONTENT

Photography by Kaye Ford

Anyway x2, how about this playsuit though? I love a good bit of leg, and sunflowers are always a #mood so the two combined are just perfect. I’ve been slyly preeing the increasing amount of play and jumpsuits that are being worn this summer and I’m loving it.

The playsuit is from Glamorous UK who have recently started stocking on ASOS Curve, which is awesome because their pieces are incredibly well fitting and good quality. This playsuit is true to size but we warned: you’ll need a deep plunge bra with this (or go braless tbh) because the plunge neck is DEEP.