Rebranding Isn’t About Looking New. It’s About Becoming Legible Again.

When the logo is the last problem

The request often arrives in the same form: we need to look more contemporary. Then you examine the collection and discover that the logo is the last problem. Product, price, image and customer are describing four different brands.

A brand can be well known and still lose clarity. Customers remember its name but can no longer find a precise reason to choose it. Buyers struggle to place it. Established categories continue to sell, yet no new ones take hold, while the communication promises a level that the materials, construction and fit fail to confirm. Sometimes the opposite happens: the product is good, but the way it is presented and distributed lowers its perceived value.

Before making changes, you need to understand which problem you are trying to solve.

A restyling, or visual refresh, updates the brand’s visual language. The logo, typefaces, colours, packaging and website can all be revised when the identity remains clear but its expression feels dated or performs poorly across digital channels. The brand promise stays the same.

Repositioning changes the place a brand wants to occupy in the market. It may target a more mature customer, move into a higher price bracket or shift from seasonal products to a more continuous wardrobe. The new position must be supported by the assortment, quality, service and distribution. A camel colour palette and a serif typeface have never turned a mediocre product into a premium one.

Rebranding goes deeper. It identifies which parts of the brand’s history should remain, which have lost their relevance and what promise the product can credibly support today. A new name may be part of the process, but so are categories, silhouettes, materials, construction, prices, sales channels and tone of voice. When these elements fail to move together, the result is a visual refresh introduced by a more ambitious press release.

From Maison Close to SCANDALE

On 22 July 2026, Maison Close officially adopted the name SCANDALE. The decision followed its acquisition, at the end of 2025, of the historic French lingerie brand founded in 1932. The operation brings Maison Close’s twenty years of contemporary development and a story that began almost a century ago under one identity.

The logic behind the name can already be assessed. SCANDALE has a precise place in the history of French lingerie and provides a heritage reference that can also support international expansion. Maison Close brings a recent creative direction, an active commercial presence and a language the market already understands. The project also includes a Paris flagship and plans to accelerate growth outside France. FashionUnited

On paper, the decision has more substance than a graphic update. A name dating back to 1932 can add depth to a contemporary brand, particularly in a category where construction, seduction and the culture of the body have strong historical roots. An archive, however, guarantees nothing by itself.

The result will need to be judged through the next collections. Their construction should make the transition visible without turning into nostalgic reproduction. Proportions, materials and details will need to show which SCANDALE codes have been recovered and how they coexist with Maison Close’s more recent expression of sensuality. Core styles will matter too. They are what keep an identity stable between one campaign and the next.

Price and distribution will also be part of the test. If the operation leads to higher prices, the product will need to justify them through perceived quality, fit and finishing. The Paris flagship will have to express the same position through display, service and assortment. A rebrand loses strength when the store continues to sell according to the old logic.

It is too early to establish whether Maison Close has also succeeded in becoming SCANDALE in the eyes of the market. We can assess the coherence of the operation, the potential of the name and the decision to concentrate two histories within a single brand. There are not yet enough collections, commercial results or customer responses to call it a success.

The collection comes before the campaign

Changing identity requires selection. Some codes deserve protection because they make the brand recognisable even without its logo: a proportion, a print, a construction technique or a particular use of colour. Others belong to categories that no longer sell through, silhouettes connected to a customer base that has aged, or price points maintained out of habit.

Personal taste cannot be the deciding factor. An element may look dated in a presentation and still hold considerable value when applied to the product. The reverse is also possible: a detail may work beautifully in an archive image but damage the fit, cost or commercial potential of a current collection.

Vera Bradley offers a useful example. In 2024, the brand tried to update its image by changing its logo, stores and products. It gave more space to solid colours, leather and restrained silhouettes, reducing the prominence of the quilted prints that had made it immediately recognisable. In 2026, the company acknowledged that it had moved away from what customers valued and began restoring historic prints and styles. Vera Bradley, The Wall Street Journal

The new language must therefore enter the collection before it reaches the campaign. The brand needs to decide which categories deserve greater depth, which products should be removed, what level of quality will support the price and which stores can present the offer credibly. Tone of voice depends on these decisions too. Describing a change that customers cannot find in the garment only increases the distance.

The name changed on 22 July. The next collections, the Paris flagship and the response from retailers and customers will tell us whether the brand has changed with it.

Romina Tosi

www.linkedin.com/in/romina-tosi-tatastyle