An unconventional fashion blogger trying to find her place on the internet

I’ve made it no secret that I live in a council flat (well housing association if you want to get technical) on a council estate. I’m not one of these girls, nor will I ever be, that dresses up and heads to the outside of an aspirational home for a photo shoot. I’m not going to lie to you all and pretend that that’s my life, because it’s not (nor will it ever be). So my confession for today about my photos is that 99% of the ones I share on my feed (Instagram and on here) have in fact, been taken on a council estate, outside my council flat and that doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.

Are these types of photos detrimental to my Instagram following? Quite likely, however it’s also probably because I don’t get my body out.

I’ve been rocking this area outside my flat for the past 3 years and love it. I look outside of my window and sometimes see the beautiful blossom on the trees, sometimes there’s rubbish floating around that the bin men dropped (because let’s face it, they’re shit), or on rare occasions someone has decided to fly-tip their dirty old sofa next to the garages I look out on.

Look closely and you might spot a crisp packet floating in the wind, a stray brick (the source of which is to this day unknown) or the concrete from a pillar that has been sat next to the lamp post for years after someone pulled it up and never went back to take it away (pretty sure you’ll notice it now I’ve said).

When did a blogger sharing real life photos become so taboo? Why are we flocking to take shopping and life advice from people that haven’t, nor will they ever have to live in a place like this? I’m not saying I live in a shit hole, I mean as far as council estates go I’m quite lucky in that I’m not living near a park or the shops – but nonetheless it’s a council estate. We have nice people that go to church (our neighbour in the houses was the organ player at our wedding), we have some not nice scummy people that let their kids run riot while they puff on their 40 fags (and funny fags) a day and we have your everyday people just working their way to get a nice house to start a family one day.

Let’s not pretend that the article published in the Times and the Evening Standard about the residents of Notting Hill becoming irritated by the masses of influencers posing on their doorsteps hasn’t been a trigger for today’s post. A quick Google or Twitter search will show the huge backlash from both sides of an argument about whether or not this kind of content is fair to the audience and how it can impact the people living in the areas people are shooting in. Some of these houses are worth upwards of £1 million and are beautiful so I understand the attraction. I know I’d personally find it annoying if I walked out of my front door to people having photo shoots, I get pissed off at having to trample through the mass of fallen soggy leaves, let alone cameras and fashionistas (oh how the other half live).

Having said that, I don’t think they’re doing any harm, but I think it sparks a debate about whether we as a community need to become a bit more original and creative in what we produce – it’s all well and good posing for the odd snap if you happen to be in the area, but do you want your photo to become lost in the sea of the people doing the same thing?

Anyway, that’s my 2p’s worth on the subject and I’ve made my confession about my photos being taken on a council estate. It’s not glamorous, but that’s the life I live and I’m not ever going to pretend that it isn’t.

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