Sagmeister & Walsh rebrands fashion label Milly to reflect its "edgy" new personality

Sagmeister & Walsh has completed a rebrand and visual campaign for New York fashion label Milly. The team has applied its rich and vivid art direction trademark to create a campaign that will be produced in print, digitally, and across social platforms.

The label started by Michelle Smith originally gained its following due to a “retro and vintage-inspired look merging American silhouettes with French atelier style”. However, more recently it has embarked on a shift in tone, shaping the brand to be “edgy, bold, colourful and irreverent” says the agency’s partner Jessica Walsh. Sagmeister & Walsh’s redesign aptly represents Milly’s evolution in personality, injecting a bolt of energy into the brand identity while intelligently maintaining its original look.

“We kept the shape of the existing logo mark but evolved the mark’s personality by transforming it into a changing logo type that can showcase different attitudes. Whether the logo grows flowers, freezes over in ice, or is painted onto a woman’s body, each application tells a new story which can evolve as the clothes in each season do,” she explains.

Sagmeister & Walsh will gradually release more images as part of the campaign based on further understanding of what catches the eye of the consumer and maintains their interest, Jessica explains: “Consumers are used to digesting large amounts of imagery and content from brands daily. Recognising this, we created a campaign of over 400 images and animations to accompany an influencer programme which will roll out over the next year on social media.”