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Pantone Names the 10 Colors Expected to Rule Fall

TrendsFeb 11, 2016

Pantone Names the 10 Colors Expected to Rule Fall

From calming blues to earthy tones and pops of vibrancy, fall’s predicted palette trends toward gender neutrality.

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Pantone’s Fashion Color Report for fall 2016 takes a “unilateral approach to color and trend(s) toward gender neutrality,” it said.

New York--The colors that are expected to be popping up prominently in fashion designers’ collections this fall are here.

On Thursday, the Pantone Color Institute released its latest Fashion Color Report, a semi-annual predictive palette that comes out in the midst of New York Fashion Week, when Pantone takes a comprehensive look at the hues most commonly spotted on the runway.

The shades Pantone said will be in for fall 2016 are: Riverside, Airy Blue, Sharkskin, Aurora Red, Warm Taupe, Dusty Cedar, Lush Meadow, Spicy Mustard, Potter’s Clay and Bodacious.

Six of the colors--Riverside, Airy Blue, Sharkskin, Lush Meadow, Spicy Mustard and Bodacious--are new hues, introduced to the Pantone Fashion, Home and Interiors Color System last year.

The blue family, which conveys a message of calm and constancy, leads the 10-color palette.

“The idea of comforting blues coming to the top of the list again shows that people are still searching for that reassurance,” Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman said. “The color blue is fundamentally important to the human eye as a stable icon of the balance in our universe. Even in an uncertain world … we remember that the blue skies represent constancy; they have never fallen.”

There also are earth tones and some pops of vibrant colors in the report, making for a scheme that is “playful but structured departures from the more typical fall shades.”

“The grays give a feeling of stability and represent rock solid colors that you can go back to and use with everything in your wardrobe,” Eiseman said. “The red tones invite confidence and warmth while the hot pinkish-purples and spicy mustard yellows suggest a touch of the exotic, rounding out a palette that is stable and grounded but also bold and complex.”

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