Curvy Kate

Curvy Kate launched in July 2009 at the Harrogate Lingerie Show as a British lingerie and swimwear brand for D to K cups. It is based in Uxbridge, on the western edge of Greater London, and Steve Hudson is recorded as its founder and director. Alongside the main label it runs Scantilly, a bolder sister line.

A Harrogate launch

Harrogate is not where fashion brands usually make their debut. The North Yorkshire spa town hosted a lingerie trade show where independent boutique owners went to see new collections and place orders. For a brand built for full-bust customers, that audience made sense. Specialist bra-fitting shops were where women with larger cups actually bought their bras, and Curvy Kate needed those shop owners on side before it needed anyone else.

Earlier accounts credited the brand's founding to a woman named Hannah Houston. No source for that could be found. The company record names Steve Hudson as founder and director, and this entry follows it.

Who Kate is

There is no real Kate. The brand says so plainly: Curvy Kate is meant to be every customer, described as the girl next door, a sassy friend, a body-loving mum or a confident colleague. The name is a character, and the tone is the point. Full-bust lingerie had a reputation for being functional above all, built in beige and white with wide straps and full coverage. Curvy Kate set out to sell the same engineering with brighter colors, prints and a chattier voice.

The size grid

Curvy Kate's range runs from D to K cups. Back sizes go from 28 at the small end up to 46. That is a wide grid, and the brand publishes one statistic that shows who uses it: the average bra size it sells is 38GG.

That number explains the business better than any slogan. A 38GG customer is poorly served by most high-street lingerie, which tends to stop at a DD or E. She needs an underwire with a wider, deeper curve, cups cut in more sections, firmer side support and straps that carry weight without digging. Curvy Kate's styles cover the usual shapes, including the balconette and the plunge, each graded up through the larger cups rather than scaled from a small-cup pattern. British full-bust specialists such as Panache and Freya work in a similar size range.

Star in a Bra

The brand's best-known marketing device is Star in a Bra, a model search open to its customers. Entrants send in photographs and the winner becomes the face of a Curvy Kate campaign, described by the brand as "the poster girl for curvy girls everywhere." The competition has run as an annual event.

Winners recorded over the years include Lauren Colfer in 2009, Laura Ann Smith in 2010, Lizzie Haines in 2011, Sophie Morgan in 2012, Lotte Williams in 2013 and Sophia Adams in 2015. The list itself makes the point the brand wanted to make: its campaign faces were chosen from its customers rather than cast from a modeling agency's books.

Swimwear and Scantilly

Swimwear followed the same logic as the bras. Full-bust women have trouble finding swim tops that hold up when wet, and an underwired bikini top cut to the same cup grid solves that. Curvy Kate now sells swimwear alongside its lingerie in the D to K range.

Scantilly, sold as "Scantilly by Curvy Kate," is the bolder sister line in the same larger cup sizes. A second label lets the company try sexier styling for bigger cups without changing the tone of the main brand.

In 2026 Curvy Kate marked its seventeenth birthday. Its offer has barely moved from the Harrogate launch: bright, printed, well-graded bras for women whose cup letter comes late in the alphabet.

Last updated October 7, 2026