Last Sunday we had our Harlow bullet bra appear in NOTW's Fabulous magazine. It seems like all the Sunday papers were going crazy for the 'underwear as outerwear' story last weekend. I've no idea why! April's Vogue has continued with the theme with some great pictures of Kate Moss (alas, not our lingerie, but they're great images).

Sunday also saw the launch of Peek! magazine in our boutique. Our boutique has only just recovered from it's refurbishment and it was the first time we were filled to capacity which meant that our extra space came in very handy! Feedback from customers over the last few days has been overwhelmingly positive:

'I would like to offer my sincere thanks and appreciation. From the moment I walked into your store, I was made welcome; I was treated with courtesy and professionalism. Your staff are very knowledgeable, and patient! I really appreciate the time and effort they expended in helping me make my purchases, and making the right purchases. Retail is a tough business, and the recession has made things harder for a lot of people, but I believe you have a brand, a reputation and staff to succeed in even these trying times.'

The main shop floor

Taking a peek at Peek! magazine

Press manager Clare Marie with our
'press wall'

New changing rooms and chill out
space

By this point Peek! photographer Tony Nylons had decided to liven up the proceedings by taking a peek into the changing rooms. I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the next issue of Peek! to see more... Peek! magazine can be purchased from What Katie Did online or instore, or from
Peek! magazine direct (who also do subscriptions).

Sunday saw is in News of the World's Fabulous magazine in an Alice in Wonderland inspired shoot. Our Maitresse bullet bra can only just be seen but we forgive Fabulous as the photographs are so beautiful! Last Friday also saw our lingerie appear on ITV's This Morning as part of a Underwear as Outerwear feature.

NOTW's Fabulous magazine featured some of our lingerie in a shoot devoted to shoes yesterday. The first picture shows our Sophia corset in peach, with peach ballet knickers (if you'd like the ballet knickers order them quickly as we're going to have a little delay before the next shipment arrives). The second shows our Maitresse bullet bra. Thank you Fabulous!

Yesterday our Maitresse Bullet Bra was modelled by glamour model Nicola T in Celebs on Sunday magazine (The Sunday Mirror).

Whilst our Glamour Girdle is featured in Feb/March's Wonderland magazine.

Some of you might also have noticed our Josephine cheetah print lingerie on ITV's This Morning on Friday 12th February. For those of you with a saucier outlook on life check out Skin Two's review of our lingerie book (warning, their site is not work friendly!)

It's been a quiet week for blog updates - but let me assure you that it certainly hasn't been quiet at What Katie Did. Our boutique and mail order departments have been running at full speed and, thanks to my ploy of keeping out of the way, all seems to be going smoothly! We've got deliveries arriving from our factory on a near daily basis to ensure we're stocked up right up until Christmas.

I met up with photographer Tony Nylons and stylist Fleur de Guerre earlier this week to re-shoot our sheer Cabaret range. Cabaret has always been one of my favourite ranges as it's sheer fabric does make it rather naughty. However, sales have never been as high as they could be and I wanted to give it a little boost. I think model Ruby did a great job as Tony and Fleur did get rather excitable with lots of 'ooohs' and 'aaaahs'! I'm afraid you'll have to wait until January to see the new pictures but i-D magazine have featured our Cabaret bullet bra in their Dec/Jan issue and I'm sure you'll agree with me that it looks rather splendid.

Our London boutique has also had some great press this week being awarded 5 stars by ETO magazine's mystery shopper. ETO is an adult trade magazine which can only be classed as rather risque, but it has some interesting retail advice alongside regular lingerie pages. If you are on the more risque side of the lingerie trade it's well worth subscribing to.

The Daily Telegraph is one of the few publications we've never been featured in. We had a false alarm a few months ago when they borrowed our bullet bras for a 'Mad Men' shoot, they even got as far as asking us style numbers and prices, but although our next door neighbour (alas, my arms never grew long enough for broadsheets) kept a close eye on the fashion pages for weeks, nothing appeared. We had an email from the Telegraph on Monday letting us know that a new fashion shoot, including our bullet bras would be published today. They were, but unfortunately were all pictured under clothing: the picture below shows the clearest shot by far or our Harlow bullet bra. Well, you win some and lose some and we've certainly had more than our fair share of good press recently!

Our worldwide Vogue campaign continues! This week we're in Vogue Nippon who appear to have fallen heavily for our Glamour shapewear. The pictures feature (top to bottom), our Glamour bustier (right hand side), Glamour bra and Glamour corselette. Being based out in the sticks makes keeping up with international press very difficult so I have to thank one of our stockists - Faire Frou Frou in LA - for pointing me in the direction of Fashion Gone Rogue, a website which covers the best fashion shoots from magazines world wide. If you're into fashion make sure you have plenty of time to look at the site as the first time you visit you'll loose an afternoon in a blink!

Last month I blogged about our successful run of lingerie featured in UK Vogue and said that our luck was sure to run out soon. Sure enough it did, and December's issue contained nothing by What Katie Did (although it does have a very interesting feature by Helena Bonham Carter about corsets).

Thank goodness Vogue is published in other countries as this month we have had our Jane bullet bra in French Vogue (a little late as it was discontinued months ago - but they insisted on having it!) and a girdle on Lara Stone in Italian Vogue (again, discontinued but they were desperate!) but the piece de resistance is our Maitresse bullet bra worn by Claudia Schiffer in Russian Vogue.

We're on the cover of Look magazine this week! Or, at least, our Lulu bullet bra is. Inside the magazine they've done a feature on conical bras which are currently fashion flavour of the month. Our Padded bullet bra and Lulu bullet bra are featured next to bullet bra wearing celebs: Lady Gaga and Madonna. If you're lusting after Rigby and Peller's peach version, but aren't so sure about the price tag, then we also make a more affordable peach bullet bra which can be found here.

At What Katie Did we'll be the first to admit that a bullet or conical bra takes a little getting used to. Instead of the modern rounded push up shape modern bras bullet bras push the breasts into a pointy shape. If you're new to conical bras please remember that what you wear on top of your cone bra is just as important as the bra itself (unless, like in the case of  Lady Gaga, the bullet bra is the outfit!)

Bullet bras first appeared in the late 1940s and remained fashionable right up to the mid 1960s so they work best with fashions from, or inspired, by that era: especially with 1950s style dresses, instantly giving you that sexy 'Mad Men' silhouette. If you're into vintage fashion, you might notice that bust darts in 1940s and 1950s dresses are positioned in the 'wrong' place: this is because they were designed to be worn with a conical bra - once worn with a bullet bra everything starts to make sense! Bullet bras also look good under shirts, worn with a fitted pencil skirt - again channelling that Mad Men office look (incidentally, the actresses in Mad Men all wear period correct lingerie, which is why their outfits look so good!)

Remember to keep your fashion 1950s style and you'll be fine. Bullet bras definitely don't work under tight t shirts and although we have one customer who wears her bullet bra for working out (she finds it more supportive than a sports bra) in fashion terms bullet bras and sportswear were most definitely not made for each other!

Bullet bras are made from non stretch fabric with a minimal amount of elastic so sizing is very critical. If you are wearing the correct bra size then you should be the same when selecting a bullet bra, but please read our sizing notes (found by the product description) to ensure you select the correct size (several customers have told us that if they'd read them before ordering it would have saved the hassle of exchanging). Welcome to a world of vintage glamour!

Here's the pic of Dannii as promised yesterday!