Let's Do The Time Warp: Forties Era Couple

The spirited mum and her equally enthusiastic husband Richard have spent thousands kitting out their home with authentic 30s and 40s furniture to create a whimsical time-warp.

Kitten, who performs as a burlesque dancer and 40s-style singer, has a wardrobe bursting with over 100 vintage outfits and 100 pairs of retro shoes – along with countless vintage hats, gloves and accessories.

And she is already adding to her own extensive wardrobe with a huge collection of vintage outfits for her two-month-old daughter Betsy-Rose - as well as a 1930s summer pram, a 50s-style pram and a vintage-style silver cross pram

Kitten, 35, who legally changed her name from Michelle, has dedicated her life to the 1940s era for the last 15 years.

Every day she curls her hair into perfect victory rolls and dons a retro outfit for work as a creative writer.

And her striking looks caught the eye of construction worker Richard, 55, at the United States Services Organisation – a 1940s convention where both are still performers.

Richard was left with his tongue hanging out after one of Kitten’s saucy burlesque routines.

And Kitten was impressed by Richard’s twinkle toes on the dance floor.

Kitten said: “I’ve always liked the Clarke Gable type gentleman and it takes a certain sort of man to pull off a moustache like Richard’s.

“Our mutual love for the 1940s definitely brought us together.”

The kooky couple married three years ago in a 1940s-style ceremony at an old train station on the anniversary of the Queen’s Jubilee.

Kitten wore a 1940s-style dress made from parachute silk whilst Richard wore an original World War II British Navy uniform for the occasion.

Now the couple live blissfully in their 1940s time capsule cottage in the Stratford-Upon-Avon countryside.

Kitten said: “I love everything about the 1940s – the fashion, the music, the décor – I find it totally captivating.

“I’ve dedicated my life to re-creating it and I love the world that I live in.

She said: “I would never dream of going out to the theatre in a pair of modern jeans.

“I like the fact that in the forties the women were impeccably turned out, even during wartime.”

“Betsy-Rose already has a wardrobe to rival my own. She will have outgrown half of her clothes before she has a chance to wear them.”

Richard, 55, who works on a construction site, said: “This is our lifestyle. I come home from work and retreat into our time-warp.

“Kitten doesn’t wear modern clothes at all. I love the way she looks and we plan to continue to dress Betsy-Rose in the same way as her mum.”

As well as inheriting authentic furniture from her grandparents, Kitten has trawled flea markets and car-boot sales to decorate her home in perfect 1940s fashion.

“I've dedicated my life to re-creating the past,” she said.

“It was a time of great austerity, but the entertainers and actors of the time created escapism that lifted everyone's spirits, whether on the silver screen to makeshift stages on the front line.

“That is what I really wanted to achieve and bring alive.

“My whole life is a flashback to the 40s but I far prefer it to the mundane modern world.”