Daniel Herrmann doesn’t wish to discuss elevation methods — a minimum of not explicitly.
The managing director of H&M-owned COS believes elevation is a matter of notion, and true elevation comes from the client experiencing the merchandise you create.
It’s a notable stance for somebody who has presided over an surprising retail success story, with COS touchdown amongst Lyst’s high 10 hottest manufacturers in 2025 seemingly out of nowhere. Since taking the helm in April 2024, Herrmann has steered the model by a second during which it has emerged as a darling of the “quiet luxury” motion, capturing prospects buying and selling down from higher-end labels whereas sustaining its accessible value factors. The model has managed to stake out coveted territory between mass market and luxurious — what Herrmann calls a “bridge” — by staying constant to its minimalist aesthetic and focussing obsessively on worth, whether or not that’s a £19 cotton t-shirt or a £1,000 funding piece.
It has additionally pushed a refined, aspirational picture with its advertising, staging a buzzy runway present in September at New York Fashion Week.
Herrmann discusses how COS approaches model positioning with out chasing traits, why the model thinks when it comes to ageless fashion moderately than demographic segments and how product stays the final word car for storytelling.
BoF: COS launched in 2007 to serve an older buyer base than H&M. The level was at all times to be extra minimal, to be extra refined. How has this standpoint developed or shifted?
Daniel Herrmann: I wouldn’t say that the model standpoint essentially modified. Besides the aesthetics, which is clearly one vital factor, we guarantee that all the universe inside COS lives and suits collectively. We additionally developed throughout the model standpoint extra of a narrative or a storytelling perspective, the place we wish most of our storytelling to centre round what we name related style moments that we choose and pick that really feel genuine to COS, like displaying up at New York Fashion Week, or round craftsmanship, which is concerning the fashion and high quality of the product.
BoF: In your technique, or in your intentions, was elevating COS ever an express goal?
DH: Both sure and no. It’s a little bit harmful as a model to go after a phrase that you simply don’t personal your self, as a result of I really feel true elevation comes from the one experiencing what you’re attempting to create.
Our hope is that we are able to ship on one thing that feels elevated, however it’s extra vital, I really feel, to speak concerning the high quality and execution than us producing one thing that another person ought to categorical as being elevated. I feel it’s extra vital to, as a model, focus on the way you really present up.
BoF: As younger prospects — Millennials and Gen Z — uncover the model, how have you ever been ready to make sure that COS’ identification resonates with them in addition to current segments of shoppers?
DH: We have a tendency to take a look at ourselves as extra ageless, to be trustworthy. We don’t look a lot at our prospects relying on age. We take a look at it far more [as] we’re tapping into a fashion that may be very real to COS, which is what we talked about earlier than, being centred round one thing that’s extra timeless, centred round actually high quality supplies and additionally after all actually sustainably sourced supplies.
I feel we’re not attempting to indicate up in a different way. We’re attempting to be the model we’re, it doesn’t matter what age the particular person is experiencing us. I feel our positioning in that is far more targeted on delivering what we really feel is genuine to COS than attempting to slice ourselves into totally different elements for various segments.
BoF: What does COS’ model storytelling seem like?
DH: We at all times return to, ‘How can we amplify and use the perspectives of relevant fashion movements, of craftmanship and innovation, in our communication and how we actually reach out?’ Then we try this in producing reveals. We return to New York Fashion Week within the Fall, and then for the Spring season we’re a bit extra playful in the place we go.
BoF: So, in the end, product is COS’ largest car for storytelling?
DH: It’s really easy to speak concerning the ambition of producing elevation, however until you’ve a product really assembly that feeling, the whole lot you do turns into pointless in a manner.
What we’re doing [to widen] our place available in the market is to be very, very thoughtful in our value structure of issues. We like to speak about our positioning as this bridge between luxurious and extra mass-market gamers, and actually giving extra folks from the mass market the chance to expertise COS.
We have the cotton t-shirt for £19, which we really feel is a aggressive value for lots of the prospects shopping for from mass market right this moment, so giving them a likelihood to begin experiencing COS on a value level they’re extra acquainted with is a vital strategic alternative for us.
BoF: Can you say extra about COS’ total strategy to pricing structure?
DH: Value is so vital to us. No matter if the worth is £1,000 or if it’s £20, we at all times concentrate on worth, as a result of that’s the proof that we’re attempting to construct one thing that you simply really feel is elevated.
We take a look at our value structure in three modules, which is entry value vary, a extra common value level and funding items.
It’s really easy to speak concerning the ambition of producing elevation, however until you’ve a product really assembly that feeling, the whole lot you do turns into pointless in a manner.
BoF: What position do brick-and-mortar shops play in COS’ technique?
DH: Retail is basically vital to us. It’s extra than simply transactional areas, as a result of it’s really a manner for us to create extensions of COS the place you’ll be able to really feel cultural relevance by us working along with native artists. We did one thing with Sophie Ashby not too way back the place she helped us to truly convey artwork in retailer in chosen ones throughout Europe, and after all, it’s additionally an extension of our aesthetics and our personal standpoint.
We additionally work with extra experiential codecs. Usually these are extra short-term activations. We had a pop-up in Seoul the place each prospects and additionally press might come and study and perceive, and see and really feel extra about what the gathering is about and the way it was made. We additionally use the retail expertise to check and study in new locations with pop-ups. I simply got here again from Paris the place we opened a pop-up on the Champs Elysée to see if that’s a place the place folks would resonate with COS, and see how we might really be perceived in a prestigious place like that road. Then, after all, simply opening up COS to new markets, looking for new COS prospects and actually taking COS out to new locations. After this name I’m on a flight to India the place we opened our first retailer in Delhi yesterday.
BoF: Many prospects right this moment are redefining what luxurious appears like, together with many high-spending buyers buying and selling down in response to super value hikes within the conventional luxurious sector. How have you ever noticed these traits and how has COS tailored to those shifts?
DH: We’ve seen the pattern of shifting away from being logo- and status-driven to actually additionally homing in and focussing on worth. That’s a pattern we see inside luxurious, that luxurious manufacturers are additionally now shifting into worth in each product and expertise. We really feel that’s actually appropriate for us, as a result of we’ve tried to change into this bridge between mass and luxurious. We know that a lot of customers right this moment, they’re not either-or. They transfer fluently between all segments of the market.
It’s additionally why value structure is a consequence of that too, the place we each can showcase the actually high-end whereas on the identical time we are able to additionally onboard new prospects from the excessive road and enable them to hopefully expertise COS and over time purchase extra from the vary that we provide. It’s an vital reply to how we see the market is flowing.
BoF: Do you assume that quiet luxurious has extra legs to it?
DH: When COS began now we have at all times had this aesthetic. It’s not one thing we grew into with the traits available in the market. It’s at all times been our start line. Then, after all, that has been extra of a macro pattern that’s been actually clear and vital throughout the market over the past time period. We assume it’s not a pattern. It’s one thing that may reside on as a fashion for folks, I don’t know for a way lengthy however for a very long time, and us tapping into that curiosity is after all each good for us as a result of it’s genuine but additionally resonates with prospects yesterday, but additionally for the years to come back.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
This article first appeared in The State of Fashion 2026, an in-depth report on the worldwide style business, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company.