Do you all follow the seasonal Pantone color forecast? I always forget it even exists until it pops up in my reader or something (as it did yesterday, thanks to
The Mahogany Stylist!). Did you know the color of the year is Honeysuckle? (Not exactly breaking news; it was announced in December--before the year even began.) Also, did you know that in the Pantone universe, honeysuckle is a "festive reddish pink"? Very surprising. When I was little, we lived in Michigan for several years and I loved the honeysuckle, which was white and yellow. You could peel back the stamen of the flower and get a tiny, delicious drop of sweet golden yellow nectar. I think I would have loved it even more if it were pink!
Anyway, I love Pantone's honeysuckle color. It's such a pretty coral pink color that I would adore to incorporate into my wardrobe a bit more this spring.
I'm also loving lavender for spring (I've been wearing my new J. Crew cardi in orchid almost every other day) and what do you know? Pantone predicted that I would like that too. Here is their color forecast for spring, released months and months ago.
And here's fall 2011 already! It's just been released in conjunction with Fashion Week, along with coordinated sketches from major designers.
Which kind of makes you wonder: did Betsey Johnson (for instance) agree to use Honeysuckle in both her collections this year? Did she agree to that sometime in early 2010? Is this some kind of color conspiracy?
Which all means, of course, that we must end with a quote from
The Devil Wears Prada:But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent... wasn't it who showed cerulean military jackets? . . . And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff.
P.S. Did you know that Pantone
announced Cerulean as the color of the current
millenium in 1999? The conspiracy grows!
Hi Gertie. Thank you for a wonderful blog. I am taking my family across the Atlantic in May for a week in New York. But, if I am not to be totally abandoned by my family, I need to be focused in my shopping:-) So I was thinking that might be an idea for a post? Your favorite places to shop fabric, buttons etc in New York. You sure would make me (and my family) happy!
ReplyDeleteThat's too funny! I: a.Just complained to a fellow design editor about seeing honeysuckle pink everywhere (while wearing a coral pink cardigan and after I wrote an item on Pantone's choice a month back). b. Just re-watched The Devil Wears Prada last night...
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Are you familiar with the WSGN? it's a (paid) trend forecasting service most fashion designers use, which explains the consistency with colors etc.
-Chedva
I thought of that scene, too.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about color forecasters, how they collect their information, or why they're necessary. But they do come out with their predictions years in advance. Designers who want to be "on trend" subscribe and take heed.
If I don't like the colors of the season, I buy black.
Honeysuckle reminds me of retired ladies in South Florida.
I don't think I can pull off Honeysuckle (olive skin tone + fuchsia = clash!) but I am all over Deep Teal. I made a shawl a couple of years ago in rust-red, gold, and saturated deep teal, and deep teal is a color to die for!
ReplyDeleteI could maybe do lavender, of sorts, though. I've had a dress pattern and lavender print fabric in the queue forever. I should move them up and get sewing.
Thanks for the lovely color post. The honeysuckle is a color I adore. I agree, though, that I would not have guessed it was called honeysuckle. Then had to laugh when I saw the color forcast chart and saw the coral rose color which is neither coral nor rose. Was there a switch?
ReplyDeleteAlso just wanted to say thank you again for running the Crepe sewalong. I've already used the underlining technique for another project!
I love color forecasting! It's one part of my day job (graphic designer) that I can bring home to the sewing room!
ReplyDeleteI really like honeysuckle, but I'm having a very hard time finding it in anything other than quilting fabric. Does anyone have the resources you wouldn't mind passing a long? Thanks!
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ReplyDeleteOh yes--I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I must be just as up on the color trending as all the other designers out there. Pay attention when you go to your favorite websites. When they update, the color palate may change, unless they adhere strictly to a corporate style guide. (Yep, it's called "style," even when Bank of America does it.)
ReplyDeleteSo to answer your question Gertie... yes, it totally is a conspiracy, and Pantone is at the helm of the whole thing! :)
It is a conspiracy!
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a designer for a flooring company and he went to a color marketing group conference in the fall where they "discussed" the upcoming color trends for next year. He said it was quite interesting (sometimes a little bit silly, too) It's crazy to think about how easily everyone is influenced!
I wouldn't have thought of that color as Honeysuckle, either, but more of a sweet melon or strawberry sorbet. But then, I suppose the color names aren't actually intended to reflect the hue, but to inspire a feeling about the hue. I do wonder how they decide on the color of the year and all the complementary colors for the season.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be two years in advance as production takes time. Paints and dyes have to made, threads have to be dyed, fabric has to be woven and garments have to be made.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's that slow still, thinking of the brands that launch new collections every 6 weeks.
Ofcourse there's something like 'zeitgeist' and designers may float on the same vibe, but marketing has a lot more to do with it.
All the same "coicidence" in fashion, design, make-up, furniture, crockery wallpapers, cars, paints, bedlinen... you name it, the lot!
Hues and shades are very important, trust me, red is not any red. The colour business is a serious and costly thing.
Also silhouhette, shape, texture, length, or types of buttons, sleeves or ruffles and lengths in fashion design are not "coincidental".
Lucky me! I've bought so much pinky-coral fabric lately, that I bet I have some honeysuckle! Fancy that! Me! Right on trend.... I hope the universe will recover.
ReplyDeletePantone forecasts 3 years out, if you subscribe to their professional services. If you live in the non-design world it's kind of weird, but it's necessary when trying to source fabrics and other materials. I'll try to find the article on the color spotters that they hire. It was fascinating.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! The color Honeysuckle seems arbitrary to me, especially since honeysuckle flowers in Georgia, where I grew up, tend to be white or yellow. Trumpet vine is the pink one. However, as the daughter of a watercolorist, thinking about cerulean is totally natural. You see, when I was younger, my mother and I would look at beautiful colors around us and discuss how we would mix them up. Cerulean is a pigment, and it was one of the standard pigments that she always kept on her palette, so it was often part of this discussion.
ReplyDeleteThere's an interior dec blog I read sometimes that had what I thought was a very good explanation of why color forecasts exist.
ReplyDeletehttp://colourmehappyblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/colour-trends-are-important-yay-or-nay.html
And I quote:
'It’s nice when you can buy an upholstered chair (for a fraction of the custom price) for your bedroom at one store and then buy a matching duvet at another one to coordinate.'
Given the manufacturing lead time on things, having that all planned ahead suddenly made sense to me.
It's totally a conspiracy, and it's impossible to get away from the forecasted colors, unless you weave and dye your own fabric! When honeysuckle was first announced I felt sort of "meh" about it - I like pink but not that particular shade, really. Of course a few weeks later, I ended up blogging about color in general and used "honeysuckle" as the example: http://hollandcox.com/blog/2011/02/exploring-new-colors-101.html
ReplyDeleteI'm such a Pantone victim. But I really do love the rest of their 2011 colors...it makes me wonder if my current obsession with orange is because of them or if I came by it honestly...hmm. How to tell???
But we Vintage Sewers are free. We buy vintage fabrics and reproductions. We mine a century or more of past styles. We don't follow this year's choices unless we want to.
ReplyDeleteI love that shade of pink, it's not too sweet. I'm really liking the 2011 fall forecast as well. Thanks for the tips! I'm a non-designer but like to poke around these parts :)
ReplyDeletewow, what a great post. I find it a bit odd that the color is called honey suckle, but still, so pretty. I have a lipstick this color and it reminds me of the color betty draper wears in the last episode of season 4.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to know the process by which these colors are selected, too.
Whoa! Cerulean has been my favorite color since I was a little girl. It was in the 24 pack crayola crayons, and it was the one I'd use to color the ocean. I think when asked what my favorite color is I've said 'cerulean' since I was about five or six. I had no idea it was color of the millennium! How fun!
ReplyDeleteCaitlin
from black currant thoughts.
...Wow, that honeysuckle is exactly the same color as the jail uniforms in a neighboring county. Who knew the sheriff was so ahead of his time?
ReplyDeleteUgh, I can't wear a single of the "hot" spring colors. Which is not surprising, I can never handle pastels except maybe baby pink -- I like them, but they look TERRIBLE on me. J. Crew colors in general look terrible on me - but that's why I sew! Then I can skip straight to the fall colors and build a wardrobe that works for me.
ReplyDeleteHoneysuckle would look great on you though, and I'm sure you'll create a beautiful dress out of it =).
Haha you are part of the conspiracy now! I found myself stalking pink fabrics on Ebay last night as if in a trance and this morning it just came to me in a flash that they bore a striking resemblance to that honeysuckle swatch I saw on your blog haha! See how easily it happens?!
ReplyDeletei think this color should be called Barbie pink- I think I have a mattel car in this color. No way
ReplyDeleteThat was my FAVORITE quote!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much...brightened my day! :)
Oh, I love that nougat/silver cloud/russet section! Yum!!
ReplyDeleteNone of those colours are really my thing, except for the teal that has been forecast for A/W and has popped up at Gucci already, just after I wore a dress in that colour, as you can see.. http://stylewilderness.blogspot.com/2011/02/gucci-gets-me.html
ReplyDeleteChedva (Belly?) I used to be the Tokyo correspondent for WGSN!! But I never did an article about colour.
I wonder whether colour forecasters think about how we'd like to feel when their colours come out, I mean I wonder if they consider how different colours are meant to affect us and that is why they choose them? But if that were the case you would think they would just choose happy hues all the time... or colours that make us part with our cash!
It would be interesting to know if the whole world really subscribes to the Pantone forecast or not. The phlox color in the A/W 2011 palette seems to be featured prominently on the cover of Ottobre Woman's fall 2010 issue, though the color I see on my monitor may be a hair different and I'm just not seeing it. Ottobre Woman also featured it the previous fall. Maybe they're just ahead of the times?
ReplyDeleteI was finally putting away thread I bought on sale last weekend and I had to chuckle to myself when one of the spools was honeysuckle pink color and I remembered your blog on pantone colors!LOL
ReplyDeleteHoney suckle? I never would have imagined that colour! I have the same white and yellow nectar sipping memories as you!
ReplyDeleteFunny indeed! I hate it when they say some colour is in and another one is out. Luckily, pink is my younger son's favourite colour. So at least he's "in".
ReplyDeleteThe hedge behind my parents' house always had honeysuckle flowers growing in it, so I have many happy nectar-sucking memories too. And ours were also white and yellow, not pink.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I'm not really a fan of the year's color, since pink is pretty much my least favorite color. But I do like the look of the fall ones, since I adore teal--the perfect compromise between blue and green, which are always fighting for dominance as my favorite color. The "coffee liqueur" and "cedar" are right up my alley too! (I think I actually have a piece of knit in the phlox color as well, and I'm also liking the nougat...)
Gertie - Thanks for the shout out. Love your blog.
ReplyDeleteHoneysuckle 2011 is not for me either - I am olive skinned like a previous reader commented so CLASH!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have a honeysuckle here in the garden in the UK that is pink and peach combined - Lonicera japonica 'Darts World' (Honeysuckle 'Darts World')
I had a pink honeysuckle growing on our property 20 yearrs ago, the goats ate them and the yellow ones too. They are rare but they are beautiful. I love the color.
ReplyDeleteI adore this color because while I'm often attracted to pinks, most of them don't look good on me. But a pretty coral/salmon? That's my version of pink. Love!
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