In December 2017, PANTONE announced ultraviolet as it's 2018 Color of the Year. It may seem like I'm late to this year's announcement, but bear with me. Typically there's lots of coverage on the newest color of the year, but it's January and bitterly cold and really no one can even imagine themselves in ultraviolet, unless they're envisioning themselves as a frozen Popsicle. People are still hitting the Holiday deals and new fashion hasn't hit the shelves yet. Really there's not a single industry that's rolled out new wares by January, so I've learned to wait until the end of Spring to examine just how big color trends are. And if you have no idea what PANTONE is or why exactly they get to decide the world's most popular color, check out this post here to get the skinny.
There's also another reason to wait until May to assess the current color landscape: you get to see the full color report play out in Spring lines. Not a fan of ultraviolet? It's OK- there are eleven other colors that made it on the full report.
I LOVE the full color report (confessed color nerd here). It's always accurate, it's always relevant, and it is fully comprehensive. Let's take a look, shall we?
Cherry tomato was all over the runway in February. It has shown up as a major player in recent apparel collections, in lip color, and is the color I'm wearing on my nails right now. So Essie is a fan. It's been paired back to blooming dahlia as a refresh to the classic "red with pink" combo on Glitter Guide, Man Repeller, and J.Crew.
Meadow Lark, Lime Punch, and Arcadia have been the accent colors on major publications like Coastal Living, Southern Living, and Vogue. Cherry tomato has outlined Vogue's iconic lettering multiple times this year alone.
Little Boy Blue, Spring Crocus, and Pink Lavender have infiltrated makeup brands like Maybelline, L'Oreal, and MAC. I haven't seen this many brightly-colored eye palettes since the 80's.
Chili Oil, Emperador, and Almost Mauve are the queens of the furniture and lifestyle industries. Target's furniture and rugs are pretty much just brown and mauve right now. Scroll through IKEA's Inspiration Page and literally everything is almost mauve, pink lavender, and emperador. Chili Oil finds it's way into Anthropologie's home collection, paired back to Arcadia and Meadow Lark.
And my short, it-took-me-five-minutes-to-recall-where-I've-seen-these-trends analysis is just the tip of the iceberg. These color trends are found in apparel, cookware, sneaker color combos, bath linens, jewelry lines, Old Navy's men's Bermuda shorts, packaging for your favorite ice cream brand, etc. They are EVERYWHERE. They are inescapable. And now that you've seen them lined up in a cute little column, you won't be able stop noticing them everywhere you go. You're welcome.