Coquette

Coquette is a Canadian lingerie maker founded in 1979 by Catherine and Peter Horea in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario. A family-owned company, it designs boudoir and costume lingerie (teddies, babydolls, corsets, chemises and harness sets) sold mainly through specialty boutiques, and its range runs from small to 4X.

Coquette sits in the part of the trade that department-store histories tend to skip: the specialty and adult-boutique market, where lingerie is bought for an occasion rather than for every day. It has worked that market for more than 45 years.

One sewing machine in Ontario

The company's own account of its start is short and specific. The first garment was a pair of crotchless panties, sewn on a single machine in a one-bedroom apartment. Catherine designed; Peter sold. They took the panties to stores around Kitchener-Waterloo, about 100 kilometers west of Toronto, and built the business from those first wholesale orders.

That division of labor, her design eye and his salesmanship, is how the company still describes the partnership. Coquette has not published sales figures or staff numbers, and the museum has not found trade-press coverage of its growth. What can be documented is what it makes and how it sells it today.

Why Ontario, and why specialty stores

In 1979 the North American market for this kind of lingerie was split. Mass retailers sold plain nightwear and basic sets; sexier pieces were sold through mail-order catalogs, adult shops and a growing number of independent lingerie boutiques. A small maker with a sewing machine could reach those independent shops directly, which a department-store supplier could not easily do. Coquette built its business there, and its current website still includes a wholesale channel for stores.

Four collections a year

Coquette designs its lines in house, with what the company describes as an all-female design team. Each year it releases new styles in four collections:

• Main, the core range of babydolls, teddies, bustiers and corsets, including bridal pieces
• Holiday, built around Christmas, Valentine's Day and New Year's, in seasonal colors
• Darque, mostly black, with harnesses, cut-outs and pieces meant to be worn outside the bedroom, toward clubwear
• Elite, a packaged line

A look at the 2026 online catalog shows how the range is weighted. Of 250 current listings, the largest groups are bra sets (45), teddies (35), babydolls (23) and bustiers (13), followed by chemises, dresses, harnesses, garter belts and stockings. Accessories such as blindfolds and ties, filed under a "Pleasure" collection, round it out. Fetish and role-play styles are a steady part of the offer, alongside softer lace pieces in white and blush.

Sizing as a selling point

Coquette's sizing has been part of its pitch for years. Styles come either in S to XL or in one size, with a queen one-size (labeled OSXL) for stretch pieces, and about half of the current listings are tagged as plus, offered in 1X/2X and 3X/4X. For a segment that long sold costume lingerie in a single small size, that range is the brand's most practical distinction.

Where Coquette sits now

The company still describes itself as family owned. It sells internationally through retailers and online, and American orders ship from a warehouse in Houston, Texas, which suggests how important the US market has become to a company that started with deliveries around Kitchener.

Its natural comparisons are the other specialty-market labels of North America, such as Dreamgirl and Leg Avenue, which work the same boutique and costume channels. Coquette is the Canadian member of that group. It has kept to the same formula since the apartment years: a dense catalog of occasion lingerie, refreshed every season, sold store by store.

Last updated October 7, 2026