Where are they now: Rachel Jenkins, Managing Director of Curvy Kate

Since its launch in 2018, the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme has celebrated hundreds of exceptional individuals. In this series, we reconnect with some of our alumni to discover where their growth journeys have taken them, the impact of being part of the programme, and what their ambitions look like today.  

As the Managing Director of Curvy Kate, Rachel Jenkins is on a mission to empower women through confidence-boosting lingerie. The business, which specialises in D to K cup sizes, fills a gap in the market by offering stylish, supportive bras for bodies often overlooked by mainstream fashion.

Since appearing in The LDC Top 50 in 2021, Rachel has established the business as a category front-runner: “We’ve evolved from being a noisy challenger brand to being one of the trusted category leaders.” Her proudest achievement in the last four years? Being recognised as one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work two years in a row. “Our goal is for the team to feel happy and challenged, so we’ve invested in tech and communication of the vision to help everyone perform at their best. We want our employees to cartwheel into work!”

What’s been your toughest challenge in the past four years?

Around 30% of our revenues come from America so potential trade tariffs are a pressing concern. As someone who likes a plan, I’ve found the unpredictability really difficult. There’s a big demand for our products in the US so we will navigate a new way of working and I’m optimistic about our future there. It may just look a little different to what we’ve been used to. Alongside this, we’ll also accelerate our focus on Europe.

How have you continued to innovate the brand?

We’ve seen a 30% rise in demand for G to K cup sizes so earlier this year we extended our best-selling Luxe strapless bra to a K cup. It’s the largest strapless bra in the world and took more than two years to engineer. Designing bras isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about structure, support and precision, which becomes increasingly complex at fuller sizes. We’re incredibly proud of our all-female design team here in the UK.

What’s next for Curvy Kate?

Representation for fuller-busted women is still lacking and we want to use our platform to challenge that. We recently launched Uplift the Nation, a campaign where we hit the streets to help women understand bra sizing and promote awareness for larger-cup bras. We’ve also started bringing the Curvy Kate magic into people’s homes through our Bras and Bubbles parties, offering fittings, fizz and fun! We’re all about uplifting real women and creating content that feels genuinely authentic.