Ressemblance is a small house with a long memory. Since 1947 it has been built by no more than a few dozen hands at a time — and yet its name now travels through screens, couriers, ateliers and partners across three continents.

This document holds the maison together at that scale. It records the logotype, the emblem, the colour, the typography, the photography, the voice — and the reasoning behind each. It is written so that a new designer, a printer in Florence, an agency in Dubaï, or a developer building the next page can act as the house would act, without asking.

Everything in this book serves one idea, the same idea that gave the maison its name: a piece must resemble the person who wears it — and the brand must resemble itself, in every place it appears.

When a decision is not covered here, it should be made by returning to that idea. Restraint over noise. The hand over the machine. The thing that lasts over the thing that sells. If a choice cannot be defended by the house's values, it is not a Ressemblance choice.

02 — 05 · The maison

The story, the name, the platform and the voice. The verbal foundation — who the house is and how it speaks before it is ever seen.

06 — 14 · The system

Logotype, emblem, colour, typography, layout, photography, iconography and motion. The visual grammar — the parts that must never be improvised.

15 — 18 · In the world

Digital surfaces, physical applications, the naming of pieces, and the governance that keeps it all coherent over time.

The atelier opened on a Tuesday in September 1947, on the rue de la Boétie in Paris. Three machines, two dress forms, a dozen lengths of cloth on waxed wood. Adèle Joude was twenty-nine. She had left a post at Madame Grès for a house of her own — without capital, without advertising, without any promise other than the one she made to herself.

She began with the silhouettes of women she knew: the bookseller of the rue de Lille, the pianist of the rue Saint-Honoré, her own aunt. She cut for them — without collections, without seasons, without fixed appointments. A score of faithful clients in the first year; then, by word of mouth, the number widened.

The house has never advertised. It has never subcontracted. Four generations later, every piece is still cut, mounted and finished by the maison's own hands, in Paris and — since 1984 — in Florence.

In French, ressemblance means resemblance, likeness — but never imitation. Adèle Joude did not want her clients to look like a season, a runway or each other. She wanted each piece to resemble the person it was cut for: their carriage, their hours, their restraint.

This is the whole house in one word. It is why the maison numbers its pieces and signs their cards of origin. It is why it offers lifetime alterations — so the piece can keep resembling its owner as the owner changes.

To dress what endures — pieces that take a patina without losing themselves, cut by the hand and made to resemble the person who wears them.

An online maison of couture and ready-to-wear, operating without boutiques and without advertising. Ressemblance occupies the rarest position in luxury: scarcity by conviction, not by marketing. Numbered pieces, internal production, a dedicated concierge, lifetime alteration. The house competes not on visibility but on permanence.

Restraint

The house never raises its voice. Nothing is shouted, nothing is oversold. Confidence is shown by what is left out.

Patience

A piece waits three days before its final inspection. The brand moves at the speed of the atelier, not the feed.

Lineage

Four generations, the same workshop floor. The house speaks of time as an inheritance, not a constraint.

The house has carried its name as its mark since 1947. The wordmark is the primary and default identity in every context — navigation, packaging, documents, signage.

The emblem (Chapter 07) is a ceremonial companion, not a replacement. The maison is never represented by the emblem alone in primary positions.

The protected zone around the wordmark is equal to the height of the capital R of the logotype itself, on all four sides. Nothing — no text, image, rule or edge — enters this zone.

In generous layouts, the house prefers twice this measure. The wordmark is given air the way a couture piece is given a hanger — it is never crowded.

Digital — the wordmark is centred in the navigation bar, between menu and account. It never moves to a corner.

Print & packaging — the wordmark sits top-left or centred; the emblem, when present, sits alone, centred, with maximum air.

Co-existence — wordmark and emblem never sit locked together as one unit. They appear on separate surfaces, or separated by a full clear-space measure.

The house is built of white space. Ink carries type and the occasional full-bleed field; cobalt is a punctuation mark, never a paragraph. If a layout reads as "blue", there is too much cobalt.

The maison structures the page with hairline rules, not boxes or cards. A 1 px rule in Ink opens a major section; a 1 px rule in Rule (#E8E8E8) separates rows within it.

Borders are always 1 px, always square-cornered. The house does not use rounded corners, drop shadows, or filled containers in editorial layout — structure is drawn with line, not with weight.

The eyebrow — cobalt, 0.30em tracking, sits above every section title. The single most recognisable device of the system.

The numbered label — sections, pillars and services are numbered. The house counts; it does not exclaim.

The underlined link — a 1 px underline in Ink, turning cobalt on hover. The only link treatment.

The hairline rule — the primary structural device. 1 px, Ink for major divisions, Rule for minor.

The numbered label — "01 —", "Univers · 02", "Service · 03". The house enumerates its pieces, its pillars, its services.

The middot — a centred dot ( · ) joins related fragments: "Femme · Couture · Été 26". Never a slash, never a dash, in client copy.

The arrow — a simple "→" follows a forward link. Used sparingly, never animated.

Once, then still. An element fades or rises into place a single time. Nothing pulses, nothing loops, nothing waits to be noticed.

Slow in, soft out. Easing is always decelerating — the cubic-bezier (.22, 1, .36, 1). Movement arrives like a hand setting something down.

Short distances. Elements travel 6–8 px, never across the screen. The hero film is the only large motion, and it only ever scales gently in.

Primary — Ink fill, Paper text. Ghost — 1 px Ink border, transparent, fills with Ink on hover. Both: 11 px Bold, 0.14em tracking, uppercase, 17×36 px padding, square corners. No third style exists.

A three-part bar: menu links left, wordmark centred, account & tools right — over a 1 px Ink rule. A notification line sits above it; a search bar below. Mega-menus open on hover with a 280 ms slide, hold a feature image, and close cleanly.

The bar is sticky, always Paper, always bordered in Ink. It never becomes transparent, never shrinks on scroll.

Product cards, cart rows and account panels are built from hairline rules and white space — never from filled cards, shadows or rounded corners. The digital house looks like the printed house.

Forms use 1 px borders, square corners, and a cobalt focus ring. Status and system messages use Ink Soft on Paper, plainly worded.

Each piece carries a French definite article + a proper noun: Le Pharaon, La Karnak, L'Hiéroglyphe, Le Faubourg. Names are drawn from the collection's place and story, or from the maison's own streets and years — Le 1947, Le Boétie.

Names are never descriptive ("the silk dress"), never seasonal codes, never numbered in client view. The name is permanent; a piece keeps its name across re-editions.

Behind every name sits a structured reference, used only in the atelier, the back-office and on the care label — never in client copy:

Assets follow the pattern rsmb_[type]_[descriptor]_[variant].[ext] — e.g. rsmb_emblem_master_foil.svg. Lowercase, underscore-separated, no spaces, no dates in the filename.

This document is Édition 2026 · v1.0. Major revisions increment the whole number; corrections increment the decimal. The live version supersedes all printed copies.

Questions, asset requests and approvals: the Studio — studio@ressemblance.fr. Brand & press: presse@ressemblance.fr.