Sunday 27 September 2009

Patsy Kensit in What Katie Did

I have to admit one of my guilty little pleasures is gossip magazines. I can get away with pretending that they're 'work' as several of them regularly borrow items from What Katie Did for shoots, including News of the World's Fabulous magazine.

Today Fabulous magazine launches Heels that Heal which involves celebrities auctioning their high heels, as well as a whole range of other goodies, for the charity Wellbeing of Women (which funds vital research into reproductive and gynaecological health). We're lucky enough to have Patsy Kensit model our Glamour corselette alongside her heels.

If any of you share my guilty pleasure I recommend that you read Piers Morgan's 'The Insider' which covers his 10 years at the helm of The Mirror. It's very interesting to find out exactly what goes on behind the scenes - naughty celebrities are often given the benefit of the doubt and appear to rely on the tabloids as much as the tabloids rely on them.

Wednesday 23 September 2009

What Katie Did at the Goodwood Revival and in Wonderland Magazine

It was the Goodwood Revival last weekend and we filled our little van with stock for our onsite boutique. This year we had something extra special in-store as we launched our new book and 2010 calendar at the event. We were extremely busy all weekend but I managed to get away from the stand for half an hour to visit the Hendricks gin bar and catch up with old friends.


Goodwood is planning 'Vintage at Goodwood' due to take place in August 2010 which, from what I gather, is rather like the Goodwood Revival but without the cars! It's a celebration of 5 decades of vintage fashion and lifestyle from the 1940s to the 1980s and sounds like a fabulous way to spend a weekend.


Vintage at Goodwood had a promotional stand at the Revival and I was delighted to find Naomi from Vintage Secret and Nina's Hair Parlour were manning the boutique. I'm still recovering from the Revival (and do aim to post some more!) but if you do want to read more in the meantime please head on over to Fleur de Guerre's Diary of a Vintage Girl.

Flicking through Wonderland magazine this morning I noticed that we were credited for one of those 'blink and you'll miss it' arty shots of a suspender clip. When I got back to the office I flicked through a few more pages to find a rather spectacular shot of our padded bullet bra, which is worn with our Maitresse suspender belt. Here it is:

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Bernie Dexter in What Katie Did

I had a nice surprise this morning when Bernie Dexter emailed me over pictures from a new campaign she's starring in for Ellies Shoes who specialise in showgirl style heels. The pictures were taken by Danielle Bedics who I've been a big fan of for several years. Danielle took a little break from photography for the last couple of years and I've really missed her work so it's great to see two of my favourite girls working together. Bernie wore our Lily lingerie and 15 denier contrast seamed stockings for the shoot and I'm sure you'll agree that they look fabulous with Ellies Shoes.

We'll have our Lily lingerie available in our boutique at the Goodwood Revival show this weekend. Don't forget that we're not in the main trading area but are located in the centre of the track to the left of the Earls Court Motorshow.

Friday 11 September 2009

What Katie Did in British Vogue

Many years ago I was discussing the passing of time with a friend who told me 'just you wait until you're 30, it really starts speeding up then!' She was right, but what she didn't tell me that once you hit 35 time starts to spiral out of control. Whilst in my head I'm still thinking it's March, we are in fact in September and at What Katie Did we're currently working on designs for next March. No wonder I never know if I'm coming or going. This problem is made worse by magazines who work 3 months in advance who and who's cover dates are invariably a month after they actually come out. Vogue magazine have done a rather festive 'Winter Warmer'  supplement which is rather alarming with it only being early September and the warmest it's been all summer (although I guess as the magazine is dated October which quite close to the frosty season). The supplement features our Harlow bullet bra as part of a 'barely there' lingerie feature, and from the picture (highlighted by my red star) you can see that is it barely there! I can assure you that it is more visible in the magazine.

 

Tuesday 8 September 2009

A weekend in Paris with What Katie Did.

Saturday morning saw me up far too early to catch the Eurostar to Paris for Mode Paris, a huge lingerie trade show. I grabbed the Saturday Times to read on the way and was excited to find that Liberty of London had included a magazine about their AW09 collections in with the paper. It was only included with newspapers in the London region so I was very lucky to be in London on that day. Inside they devoted two pages to their new lingerie ranges and included a full page on What Katie Did featuring our
Glamour corselette. A smaller insert picture featured our Lulu lingerie.


Once in Paris I headed down to the show and was pleased to see a lot of small
English boutique brands showing. Most of the other companies showing were rather bigger so it was nice to see so much innovation coming out of the UK. I picked up UK lingerie trade magazine Underlines to check out our advert and saw that they'd given us a little bit of editorial too.

Of course, all work and no play makes for a rather boring weekend in Paris. Luckily Gentry Lane of the Gentry de Paris Review  had timed the dress rehearsal  of her show for the Sunday evening so I headed to the historic Casino de Paris. The show was spectacular and I'm sure that Dita alone manages to keep Swarovski crystal afloat! I have to say though, that it was the boys that got the most applause, including Warren Speed who added a little English humour to the proceedings. It was also nice to catch up briefly with English corsetier Velda Lauder and 21CP Holli-Mae during the interval.  I'm not going to give too much about the show away as it's running until 17th September - if you are in Paris then please go and see it! If you're not able to see it then keep your eyes on 21CP as Holli-Mae will be doing a full review as soon as the run has finished.

Dita Von Deese presents the Gentry de Paris Revue

Dita performing at Gentry de Paris Review.

If you want to find out more about the Katie behind What Katie Did then head on over to The Sassy Minx who have just published a new interview with me.

Thursday 3 September 2009

What Katie Did in Pop Magazine

My, I'm on a roll with my blogging this week! Living in a little village makes finding slightly less mainstream publications quite difficult to find. A couple of years ago I asked  my local corner shop to special order me a copy of Pop magazine which we were featured in. A few weeks later the corner shop was taken over and I was quite surprised to find a big stack of Pop magazines on the shelf as soon as the next issue was published. I snapped up my copy and started feeling more than a little awkward as the big pile of Pop
magazines stayed on the shelf and I had to explain that unfortunately there was only one Pop customer in the area. They haven't given up on Pop, although they no longer give it prim position on the shelves. Last night I noticed it the Autumn/Winter edition on the top shelf and grabbed one. I've no idea how long it's been out - but surely it can't be long?

Pop is one of those magazines who always borrow items from What Katie Did, but very rarely use them (one of their studios is just up the road which makes us very convenient for last minute 'could be usefuls') so it was very exciting to discover our long sheer gloves and a suspender belt had been featured in this edition. The suspender belt picture just shows a clasp so I've no idea which model it is but why not try our Maitresse suspender belt as that is our most popular style).

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Sugarlesque new burlesque lingerie label

Those of you who have visited our What Katie Did boutique will recognise Ruka (pictured above). Until about a year ago Ruka used to run Sugarlesque, a burlesque accessories company famous for it's fans, pasties and merkins. Ruka has spent the last year working part time in our boutique whilst revamping Sugarlesque.
Sugarlesque was relaunched yesterday as a fully fledged lingerie company which focuses on cute burlesque designs. Her first collection 'Wunderland' includes some irresistible giant gingham prints and rather saucy cupless bras, all of which are hand made in London by her own fair hands. Although Ruka has had to cut down her hours a little in the What Katie Did boutique she can still be found busily making pasties, and will still have time for running her pastie and fasinator workshops which take place in our London boutique on various Sunday afternoons.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

In the Press

This week's Reveal Magazine (cover dated 5-11 Sept) have done a little feature called '30 things every stylish woman should have' which includes our Striptease Ballet knickers and bralette. Their recommendations which we approve of include matching lingerie, a red lipstick (we love Besame), killer heels, an amazing hairstylist (try Nina's Vintage Hair Parlour), a vintage dress, a style trademark and a classic scent. Recommendations we're not so sure about include control shorts, surely a lovely corselette would do the job a lot more stylishly?!