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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.
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.”
A hearty, grounded and approachable neutral, Warm Taupe also pairs well with each of the top 10 shades in the fall report.
A nod to the other half of Pantone’s Colors of the Year for 2016, Airy Blue “evokes a feeling of weightlessness,” Pantone said.
Aurora Red, a bold yet warm and sensual color that also was included in Pantone’s Fashion Color Report Fall 2014.
Bodacious speaks to the gender fluidity of designers’ use of color because it’s able to be paired with the pink and reds in the palette just as easily as it goes with Spicy Mustard or Potter’s Clay.
Dusty Cedar is a dustier rose-toned pink with some complexity that nods to one of the Colors of the Year for 2016, Rose Quartz.
Rich, elegant, vibrant and sophisticated, Lush Meadow displays a brightness, panache and depth of color that elevates the overall elegance seen in the fall runway collections.
A warm, orange-toned shade, Potter’s Clay has an added degree of sophistication and inherent layering.
Riverside, a cool and calming hue with subtle sophistication
Sharkskin serves as a neutral with an edge, able to be paired with almost any fall color, bright or muted.
Spicy Mustard is an “unexpected and unusual but welcome addition” to the fall palette, Pantone said.
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