PrettyLittleThing’s ‘luxury’ rebrand hides the ugly truth about unethical practice

Online fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing has undergone a sleek rebrand that, on the surface, repositions it as a luxury brand with a unique accessible appeal. With a minimalist aesthetic, slick calligraphic font and elegant visuals, you'd be forgiven for being blinded by design, but the brand's classy facelift hides a history of imperfections that not even the most beautiful of rebrands could conceal.

The best rebrands often build upon heritage, but with a murky past of poor quality fast fashion products, branding controversies and unethical practise, it's tough to ignore the blaring contradictions to be found in PrettyLittleThing's new visual identity. While the rebrand supposedly takes on a new era of "quiet luxury", the retailer's strategic silence on its controversial practice is anything but luxurious.

Visually, PrettyLittleThing's rebrand is the essence of modern minimalist design, taking cues from classic luxury brands with stripped-back visuals, neutral palettes and glossy product shots. Central to the rebrand is the new script font wordmark which feels almost pastiche – safe, conventional design cheapened by a lack of nuance or symbolism. In essence, it feels as if the retailer hasn't earned its right to clean, classy design, appropriating the aesthetic in an attempt to glaze over its controversial past.

Sustainable shopping database Good On You rates PrettyLittleThing 'Not Good Enough', meaning the brand doesn't "sufficiently address the impacts across their supply chain." With a poor 24% in 2023's Fashion Transparency Index, the brand fails to meet labour standards reinforcing worker health and safety, living wages and other labour rights. The retailer has also been heavily criticised for its fast fashion brand model, opting for planet-harming polyester fabrics and a 'quantity over quality' approach to marketing, as demonstrated by its controversial 99% off sale during 2020's Black Friday promotions.

"It is a significant challenge for any brand to move away from a reputation that has been established over many years, but it can be done" says Vicky Bullen, CEO at design agency Coley Porter Bell. "In PrettyLittleThing’s case, shaking its identity of a fast fashion brand that sells low-cost, poor quality garments meant that this drastic change was necessary," she tells Creative Bloq.

"As it stands, the rebrand doesn’t entirely place PLT in the ‘affordable luxury’ sector. While its refreshed design draws on some of the cues of luxury brands to create a somewhat more 'sophisticated' feel for the company, a brand is much more than just its logo and visuals," Vicky says.

"The idea of ‘luxury’ means that PLT will need to focus on improving the overall customer experience, from the ecommerce site, to the unboxing experience, to packaging and all the way through to the products themselves. It will also need to prove its commitment to sustainability and ethics, and these must be a crucial part of the PLT brand. In the past, the brand has faced criticism in this area, so the company will need to show what it’s doing behind the scenes to address this. It will need to go beyond bland statements and walk the talk all the way through the experience," she adds.

The uncomfortable truth is that branding can blind us – good design is not an indication of ethical practice, merely a veil playing on the preconception that luxury (or in this case, the illusion of luxury) is a symbol of quality both physical and ethical. PrettyLittleThing can hide behind its cursive wordmark, minimalist emblem and mock coat of arms, but until it can improve its ethical and environmental impact, "luxury" is merely an empty buzzword. We can only hope that the brand's new strapline rings true – a "legacy in progress" with a sustainable future at its core.

For more branding insight, take a look at the brands that really need to rebrand in 2025. If you're looking to improve your brand's ethical practice, check out the current trends in sustainable design and discover how you can adopt them.