What’s going on with COS?

For years, COS was the H&M group’s best-kept secret: a balance of quality and price, polished basics and architectural cuts. It was the place to go when you wanted to look minimalist without mortgaging yourself, a functional, laid-back brand. But something has changed. COS is in the midst of a mutation, and all indications are that it is preparing to enter the realm of contemporary luxury. No logos, no shouting, no need to change at all… but making it clear that it no longer plays in the same league.

Since its birth in 2007, it has been the minimalist and more “elevated” sister of the group, carving a niche in the closet of those looking for simple pieces but with a more polished touch. Its hallmark: timeless garments, clean lines, premium quality at reasonable prices, without logos, with an architectural air that appeals to a discreet and sophisticated public and a very marked Scandinavian aesthetic. However, it is now taking important steps to become a benchmark in accessible luxury.

But how? What changes are you implementing to redefine your place in the market?

You don’t have to go far in the calendar to see the shift in its communication strategy. COS has left behind those traditional product campaigns and has thrown itself into transmitting its DNA through visual narratives never seen before in the brand: a campaign with Adrien Brody, a SS25 fashion show in the middle of a marble quarry in Athens and the launch of a perfume. All this has happened only so far in 2025, but for the last 3-4 years, the brand has started a more ambitious repositioning, with a clear intention: to keep its minimalist DNA, but to get closer to the contemporary fashion conversation, in a field where brands like Acne Studios, The Row, Arket or even Jil Sander are competing.

Now, every image we see on social networks or in their ads is a work of art in itself, where not only clothes are sold, but also a story, an idea, an aesthetic. Their campaigns, much more aspirational, have stopped talking only about product. Now they breathe art, sculpture, design… and that has led COS to play in another league. In networks, their editorials or the staging of their physical spaces, everything is taken care of in detail. The image is clean, but not cold. Refined, but not inaccessible. There is something almost museum-like in the way they present the garments, as if each shirt or dress were a gallery piece.

And with the change in their communication, there has also been a change in their prices. COS is no longer just that brand where you could find a well-cut pair of pants for less than 100 €. Now there are pieces that approach the prices of contemporary luxury. In its latest collection, for example, shirts for 89 € coexist with a sheepskin coat that exceeds 1,400 €. A figure unthinkable a few years ago in a brand of the H&M universe.

This leap shows that COS no longer just wants to be the chic alternative to fast fashion: it wants to test its entry into the territory of aspirational luxury. Quality products, noble materials, and a polished aesthetic that justifies a more ambitious label. And in this context, the case of COS is interesting because it inhabits an ambiguous terrain: it is not fast fashion, but neither is it traditional luxury. We could think that it competes with brands like The Row or Lemaire for its aesthetics, although obviously its price strategy has nothing to do with it. It is also close to Studio Nicholson or even some lines of Totême or Arket. But what COS is doing now is not so much competing on price or product, but on perception.

The brand is working to take its place in the cultural imaginary of silent luxury. The one that doesn’t need logos, that values the subtle gesture, that looks more towards something artistic and polished than something purely commercial. And in that league, where the DNA of a brand weighs as much, or more, than the cut of a jacket, COS is knowing how to play its cards.

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