When everyone wears sweatshirts, the suit becomes an attitude. The same is happening with brands. After a decade of pasteurized minimalism that exchanged coats of arms for sans-serif typography in all caps, formality reappears not as nostalgia, but as a strategy. It wasn’t born in Photoshop. It came from a tougher market, competition for margins and cultural fatigue with the app’s aesthetics. Branding has always been pendulum and the pendulum has swung back.
Blanding – The cost of excessive cleaning
The previous cycle was efficient for a world that needed to fit on a five-inch screen. Clean logos, geometric typography and a youthful tone promised speed and scale. The phenomenon even gained the name blanding. The criticism is: everyone looks like the same modern startup. When everyone cleans too much, identity evaporates, distinction dies and luxury starts to sound generic.
The simultaneous exchange of historical marks for geometric wordmarks worked digitally, but erased meanings accumulated over decades. The result is impoverishing efficiency.
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The context that led to the turnaround
O The State of Fashion 2026 projects timid growth and consumers who prioritize real value over high prices. In this scenario, attributes such as utility, durability and legacy help to sustain value and preference. The second-hand market is expected to grow two to three times faster than the primary market by 2027; Nearly 60% of consumers globally say they are likely to buy resale in 2026.
In retail, behavioral signs point in the same direction. Interest in tailoring and more serious codes rekindled in mature markets with the return of social rituals. In the UK, John Lewis reported a 68% rise in sales of own-label suits and a 584% jump in formal outerwear; Marks & Spencer sold 37,500 £120 suits in a single month and claims suit sales have grown by 18% in two years. A clear symptom of a more price-conscious consumer who uses formality as a language of trust.
Burberry and the return of the knight
If you want to see the pendulum, look at Burberry. In 2018, the house swapped the classic serif for a robust sans-serif in the spirit of the time. With new leadership, the route was recalibrated. Return to the Equestrian Knight, Prorsum motto, wordmark with a historical accent and a proprietary blue that repositions the brand. Nothing here is a decorative gesture. It’s identity politics.
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“In some ways, we had lost our way”, assume o CEO Joshua Schulman.
As Schulman himself points out, the brand had slipped into a narrow vision of English luxury. A language was needed that any market would recognize without explanation. “Our brand expression had gone with a very niche view of British luxury rather than a globally recognized view.”
Return to core. “Burberry has authority, heritage and legitimacy as a leader in outerwear and scarves.” The company recalibrated the price pyramid and abandoned the entry-level consumer, the catwalk stops being the business and returns to being a laboratory with reinvestment focused on desire, design and marketing.
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From stories to be history
In luxury, the creative reorganization was also pendulum. Nine of the 15 biggest houses changed creative directors in twelve months. The irony of the moment is that the aesthetic that seemed to free brands from “carelessness” ended up imprisoning them all in the same grid. It is the search for stable codes in unstable times.
There are those who confuse formality with rudeness. Formality is valuing what has value and how value is recognized. That’s why it updates. In branding, it means abandoning the anxiety of appearing modern and rediscovering forms that support memory, ritual and price. It’s what separates a seal from a logo. The first carries a story that continues to create stories. The second one just takes up space.
