About Us

Welcome

Hi, I'm Katie from What Katie Did: welcome! I've always been interested in 1950s fashion and especially the underpinnings. While it's easy to find true vintage even today, finding wearable vintage lingerie is another story. I started to collect lingerie and nylons from the 1950s but I didn't wear as much as I liked as I didn't want to damage it.

I started What Katie Did in 1999, with just £100. At this time is was very difficult to find Seamed Stockings either in shops or online. I built a very basic website and opened a stocking stall in London's Camden market.

Who We Are

It's difficult to tell how big a company is online, and I know What Katie Did appears bigger than it actually is.

In total there are only 7 of us, all based at our Pangbourne, Berkshire HQ. We don't use a call centre or distribution centre, everything is done in house.

This means that if you do have any questions you'll be talking to someone who really knows just about everything that's going on!

Where We Manufacture

Lingerie

When I started What Katie Did I approached a number of UK factories but unfortunately none were interested in working with me as my quantities were too low. The bulk of our lingerie is made in India, in an ISO certified factory that we've been working with since 2002.

The factory is a small family owned factory and we now have our own facility which currently produces lingerie just for us. I spend a few weeks of the year in India sampling new designs, either alone, or accompanied by an English team member. My time is spent on the factory floor, frequently unsupervised with full access to all paperwork and members of staff.

Our corsets are made in a small, family owned factory in Thailand.

The UK

Our Liz, and Trixie ranges are made in a small factory in Nottingham, England.

Our Fully Fashioned and RHT Stockings are made in Derbyshire in England in one of only 2 remaining Fully Fashioned Stocking factories in England, and one of only 4 worldwide.

Italy

Our Glamour Seamed Stockings and Tights are made in Italy which is renowned for it's quality hosiery manufacturing. We've worked with this supplier since day one!

Environmental Policies

We continually work on minimizing our carbon footprint. In 2018 we moved over to using recycled plastic mailing bags and in 2019 moved over to biodegradable mailing bags. We use minimal packing to wrap our products, the white tissue paper we use is recycled, alas the black tissue paper is not colourfast and leaves marks on our products. Our delivery notes are made from recycled paper while the paper used for our magazine is sustainably sourced.

In 2021 we introduced recyclable packaging for our Glamour Seamed Stockings with a selection (Champagne/Latte, Champagne/Black, Black/Black) being made with recycled yarn.