NY Fashion Week Preview: Top 10 Pantone Colors Used by Designers This Season

Color is a very powerful force not only in design, but in life, and color palates have a singular (if subtle) way of capturing, reflecting, and impacting the cultural zeitgeist. That’s particularly evident in fashion, where color is a crucial element to design. Going way beyond “pink is the new black” and “this season, everyone has to own something yellow,” it’s fascinating to witness how an entire industry’s color choices can shift and sway with the changing times.

Women’s Wear Daily today published the top 10 Pantone colors chosen by designers this season for the Fall/Winter 08 collections being presented in New York next week (stay tuned for PSFK’s coverage of the event):

There’s change in the air for fall, and it’s not just a political one. The warm, subdued colors that typically make up a fall palette have given way to rich blues, greens and purples. “It’s a big change for the season,” agreed Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Carlstadt, N.J.-based Pantone Color Institute, which supplied WWD with its top 10 colors for New York designers for fall. “The bottom five colors are the warmer colors we’re more accustomed to seeing for fall. The dominance of blue, purple and green really makes a statement about how influential they are for designers this season.”

Pantone’s 2008 Color of the Year 18-3843 Blue Iris, pictured above, was chosen by 13.95% of designers this year, making it the most popular color of the season. Says Pantone’s Leatrice Eiseman:

“Each year, Pantone chooses a color that we think represents what the year is about. What’s the message this year? People are looking for calm in such a volatile year — especially now, with the election and the turbulent economy. We need that element of calm, but at the same time, this color also has some strength to it.”

WWD: A Season of Change (subscription req)