Katy K Designs At Ranch Dressings

We were walking up along 12th Ave and saw Katy K Designs and wanted to check them out. It was actually pretty expansive, in a ranch-house style home where there were different rooms with western threads, pin-up clothes, gift items, new and vintage western boots, and also resale shirts. There are also collectible stage outfits as well. Most of the items seemed extremely expensive, for both new and vintage items. You are not allowed to take pictures inside the premise, so keep mindful of that! Parking is plentiful as they have their own small lot. The two female employees on staff were slightly stiff, but let you wander around and check out their items at your leisure.

+no cameras allowed

This place is a gem! Katy K's designs is the real deal. You get all the kitsch and glitter that you could want but it really is more authentic than the cheap imitations you'll find down on Broadway or downtown. This place is very well organized and has room after room of western glam clothing boots and accessories.

The specialty seems to be rhinestone western shirts. She has dozens and dozens of patterned, solid-colored, and even paisley patterned western shirts for men, women, and kids.

Be prepared though, a lot of the cooler shirts in the store run around $90, so you will find something that you'll love, but it will cost you. Also, the walls are covered with signature photos of all the celebrities that have worked with Katy K over the years.

Katy K's is Nashville at its kitschiest--if your tastes run on the rockabilly, punk or western side, you have to spend some time in this place. It's a blast from the past with a modern dose of irony.

Katy K's sells mostly vintage shirts, hats, dresses, boots and other old school western style clothing. The staff is small but friendly, and there are dozens of photos showing off some of Katy's more famous patrons. If you're looking for an old button-up or a jacket worn by a '50s country music star, this is your best (if not only) hope for locating it.

There's only one problem about Katy K's: it's a bit pricey. This is of course to be expected considering the rarity of her niche apparel. However, if you're not trying to purchase a fedora worn by Reverend Horton Heat's drummer, you can find some relatively inexpensive clothes at Katy K's. She sells t-shirts and items clearly aimed at tourists as well as belt buckles and glasses frames.

So whether or not you're an up-and-coming Nashville star, you can find the clothing of stars past at Katy K's. Just be sure to bring plenty of dough.

It might have been the boozy lunch talking but this place was FUN. It's kind of hard to resist a place with such a fetching title: Katy K Ranch Dressing, so why do it?

We swaggered on in and were heartily greeted and then lost into the many rooms of kitsch, glitter and vintage. Super organized with room after room heavily stocked with t's, hats, dresses, boots and bags encompassing vintage, retro, trash, funky western, authentic and fun!

A great way to spend a few hours laughing it up and finding just the right item to finish out your look.

It's quite a trip to shuffle through the diminutive rooms and packed hangers at Katy K, which largely operates as a thrift store with a bent on local Opry-esque stylings, but not entirely so. Know that you'll likely pay a little bit more (sometimes, frankly, lots more) to pick up something suitably pearl snapped here, but there are some quirky finds throughout.

In the end, I just couldn't pull the trigger on a shirt or two that caught my eye, and that's where I miss some of the thrifting shops that merge at the intersection of hip and affordable in other cities. And I can't rightly say that this is the norm de rigeur in Nashville, but I really wish that the stickers were just a tad less proud here. Nevertheless, I did eavesdrop on some great hair-dying conversations. How's that for a non sequitur?

Wow this place is cooooool! I made a special trip to Katy K's to check out this place and the funky western wear promised from the reviews.

When you walk in there is a small room where there are kitschy items with various stars' faces on them, a sale rack, and some belt buckles. Ok, on to the rest of the place. I noted a kids room so you can find some festive western wear to deck your little cowboy/cowgirl out to the max. I thought mama wasn't supposed to let her baby grow up to be a cowboy though?

The ladies room was full of the pearl snapped rodeo type shirts that I think of when I think of my days country dancin' at Rodeos. Not really my style, but I did like that most of them were gussied up with rhinestones and other sparkly stuff. What I did like were the dresses! They have those pinup girl 50s bombshell type dresses that look so cool on certain chicks. Not sure that chick is me though - I tried one on and wasn't pleased with how it looked. But it was OH SO CUTE on the rack anyway. The mens section had similar style western shirts and also some of those shirts like the guys in the swing bands wear. Plus HATS! Cowboy hats and other hats. Oh, I loved their hats! And of course, boots for ladies and men.

I was thinking this place was going to be more of a rock-n-roll cowboy type store where Bret Michaels would be sure to shop when in town (and he may well shop here), but it was definitely swinging more Western than rocker in my opinion. However, that's not to say it wasn't awesome inside because it was! Can't wait to take all my friends that come visit me from Dallas to this store!

Katy K's is where the rockabilly stars shop, and their fans wish they could afford to shop. Well, maybe it's not quite that expensive. But there is an entire room devoted to "Rock N Roll / Rockabilly," while another is labelled "Western." If you're looking for new or vintage cowboy boots, embroidered western button-downs, giant silver belt buckles, and, of course, cowboy hats (and don't mind paying the price), this is the place to go. Either way, Katy K's is fun to browse. I'd even go so far as to say it's not just a store, but also a piece of local color.

As if all the westerns and boots aren't enough, Katy K's also has an entire room full of $25 screen print T-shirts (including fitted ones for the ladies) of Johnny Cash, Wilie Nelson, Django Reinhardt, Dolly Parton, and the rest of the fathers and mothers of country music. My one criticism of Katy K's (besides the high prices, which I'll assume are justified) is the front room, which is packed with kitsch accessories. It just seems to me that Katy K's is really about Rock N Roll threads, and that the owner would want her customers' first impression to represent that.

I bought a pink cowboy shirt with square black pearlescent snap buttons ($85). It has black stitching and sharply angled pockets. It's fitted and made with a heavy duty material ideally used for wrangling steers out on the range.

I can't begin to tell you my delight when passed the threshold Katie K's Ranch dressing and saw the belt buckles big as a fist, and fully legitimate boots. I'm not from these parts and the one thing I wanted to was get a bad ass cowboy shirt. If it wasn't for the fact that my party was ready to go after a paltry half hour I could have spent all day happily browsing and trying on western wear.

The back room is where the real party happens and the new member of my shirt family was found. There are western tuxedo shirts and jackets as well as dress and performance pants.

Friends, I'm a man who believes that the time for a man to be stuck with only the neck tie is over. I'm a man who believes that neck wear should be opened up to the silk tie scarf (I got mine in white), the bolo tie, the gambler tie. That's what America the great is all about. The boring neck tie can kiss my ass, long live western neckwear accessories!

Katy K = Nashville Institution

From its beginnings on Music Row to its current location Katy K is famous not just because it carries an eclectic range of vintage western ware but because Katy K herself is famous having worked with a range of musical talents starting out of NYC 30 years ago. You can see pictures hanging on the walls of this old house that Katy K Designs is located in of her and well loved people from days gone by. Well known Nashville and beyond musicians still stop in here to shop too.

Not going to lie, I really, really, really wanted the vintage Dolly Parton jean jacket that was hanging on the wall in the hallway. I just didn't want it for $350 because I gauge everything in plane ticket prices and that is easily a plane ticket to jet set to another city so I opted to save my $$ for the latter. I did, however, pick up a very cute pair of lace black knee high tights to wear with a dress. I would have purchased a very cool Minnie Pearl bumper sticker for my truck back home but they were sold out. If you aren't into vintage clothing, lingerie or western motif you can get some cool Johnny Cash or Elvis t-shirts and stickers at the gift area in the front of the store. They even carry old, un-opened country music artist collectible cards from the late 80s-early 90s. Katy K would be a great place to stop in and get a Nashville gift for somebody.

Across the street is a cute bar and there are a few more shops in the area that are walking distance so the location is favorable.

Like the shop which helped to clothe the fruit of Jack White's loins is anything but spectacular?

Get thee down there, son!