A visit to Ms Katt

When I was down in Tassie, I had the chance to stop in and visit Ms Katt’s Kustom House. It was nice for me to get the chance to visit a pinup shop that I’d heard so many lovely things about. It was even nicer to have a long chat with Ms Katt, who is so friendly and helpful and sells some gorgeous things (and even turned a heater on in the change rooms for me!).

The shop is huge (my pictures are just of the racks - they don't do the actual shop justice at all!) and there’s lots and lots of stock filling the racks.

I’d specifically gone in looking for the Mermaid Mexican circle skirt that, at the time, was sold out everywhere else. I've been dreaming of this skirt since before Miss Cooly Rocks On (it fit with the mermaid theme of me parade outfit), so I was so excited to actually get it on and fall even more in love with it. It’s honestly the most beautiful skirt I have ever bought and I can’t quite bring myself to stop stroking it every time I go into my wardrobe and actually wear it. I’m not sure I’m going to find an occasion special enough to wear it!

I also tried on this gorgeous, gorgeous orange branch border print Jenny skirt that I love and will be putting on my wishlist. I think what really attracts me to this skirt is the fact it’s in a different colour to most other things in my wardrobe (I tend to be strongly attracted to navy and red). I’m not actually the biggest fan of the Jenny style and am not like a lot of pinups who collect them in every print, but I love this print enough that I’d get over my quibbles (which are mostly minor and based on my perception that they make me look 10 times bigger than I actually am).

Miss Katt’s prices are really good to other stores and she ships Australia-wide, so even if you’re not in Tassie, I’d recommend you check out her Facebook and website for prices and to order. She’ll also get stock in for you if you’re after something she doesn't stock, which is super handy, given her prices!

Winter pinup

This is my wardrobe.

Yep, I’ve got a few clothes (that's not even all of them).

I live in Queensland, which means that 90% of what’s in my wardrobe is more suited to summer. With the exception of maybe four long sleeve dresses.

We have about… a month of cold weather, if that, every year. Which means I manage to get by with cardigans over dresses, stockings or tights underneath and when it’s really cold (this week it’s been properly cold for Queensland), I wear a plain black long sleeve shirt under my dresses (usually hidden by the cardigan). My normal, everyday work outfits range between a sort of toned-down version of pinup me, or more conservative vintage girl.

Today’s outfit is my case in point:

But last week, I headed down to Tasmania to visit my family. For those of you not Down Under, Tasmania is cold. It’s very cold.

My other dilemma is I went for five days and decided to only take carry-on luggage. This means I need to plan my outfits very carefully around one pair of shoes, one coat, and as little outerwear (scarf, hat) as possible.

When I was planning my outfits, there was a temptation to spend the whole week in leggings. But as much as I love all my Black Milk leggings, I don’t have a hell of a lot to go with them for the colder weather (I have a lot of cute t-shirts and cardies that I pair with them, but when it comes to layering…).

So I tempered my packing with two pairs of legs (navy matte and my favourite yellow tartan), and then I went for layers. I tried everything on beforehand to make sure they'd go with my Docs (but what doesn't go with Docs, really?) and set them out on my bed in outfits so I could be sure I had enough stockings, singlets and socks to go with each and then rolled them into my case. I picked dresses with thick, flared material. Even though I only folded my dresses in half at the very top of my case, there was still a good chance they'd get crumpled, so by picking the thicker material, it meant they could crumple a bit without me needing to iron at the other end.

Here's what I wore:

You can't see it in this picture, but I wore a nice warm wool skirt from Retrospect'd with a long sleeve black shirt, my Collectif cardigan, stockings and boots on my first full day in Tassie. Here, I'm dressed to go out for lunch on what was a cold, windy, wet day and have my grey pea-coat, red scarf and red hat on to brave the cold!

I've had a kind of love/hate relationship with this gingham Jenny dress from Pinup Girl Clothing since I picked it up. On the one hand, I'm super in love with the pattern, especially since it's a big gingham, as opposed to many of my other gingham dresses. But it's a perfect dress for travelling because it's a heavy, gathered fabric that doesn't really crease in a suitcase. I wore it with black stockings, my Docs and my Collectif Clothing black swallow cardigan. When I was outside, I had my grey pea-coat over the top and a scarf.

I have never had anything but love for this Bernie Dexter Osterly dress in Winter Wonderland print. I know it's a very Christmassy print, but it's technically Christmas in July time here! Again, I wore it with black tights and Docs (and a coat outside), but this time I wore a black undershirt for extra warmth and a purple jumper over the top.

The conclusion is that layering worked and I was happily very warm and comfortable the whole time and still looked retro. I got a few funny looks walking down the street in my lovely Bernie Dexter dress but when I went to visit Ms Katt, she said it happens a lot in Hobart!