Dear Color Lovers,
Just a reminder that when viewing colors online the computer monitor colors may vary. Thank hue for your understanding. Enjoy.
October 27, 2008
International Herald Tribune
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
Fashion & Style
Upping the color quotient
By Oliver Horton
Color has emerged as a major hook for fashion brands and retailers, with mid-season injections of merchandise translating to a vast array of shades in stores.
"Consumers are now seeing 10 to 15 colors where before they saw five," said Martin Raymond, co-founder of the Future Laboratory, a consulting agency in London. This season, for example, alongside subdued blacks and charcoals for autumn, retailers are carrying purple, bold reds and blues, forest green and muted oranges. And that's just the knitwear.
Jackie Nash, owner of the British forecaster Global Colour Research, complained that fashion no longer matches the traditional biannual cycle of autumn/winter and spring/summer.
"Because fashion is so rapid," she said, "trends are more about catching the eye. So you had bright yellow in summer '08 because the chemists could do yellow really fast. That's not a sensible trend, it hasn't taken time to evolve."
Christine Foden, director of the forecasting specialist D.cipher in London, agreed: "Fast fashion helps to drive trends faster and makes the high street interesting. The problem is that we are driving newness when the customer hasn't caught up."
Seasonal color forecasts, produced two years in advance by specialists that include the color systems company Pantone (editor's note: Leatrice Eiseman is the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and Pantone’s voice in color forecasting) and fabric exhibitions like Première Vision in Paris, have enormous influence on what ends up in stores.
Their work permeates every aspect of the market - from yarn spinners to clothing manufacturers - and every price level - from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to H&M.
For many, a season's color card is as prescriptive as it is predictive.
The popular idea of forecasting may involve a crystal ball, but color prediction is a sophisticated discipline. The Comité Français de la Couleur, for example, collaborates with fashion and industrial designers, art directors, plastic makers, researchers, journalists, writers and color specialists known as "rainbowologists."
Acting as a think tank, the group explores what's selling, new technologies, catwalk trends and even sociological forces to produce a set of benchmark colors that are used by companies worldwide. Its chairman, Olivier Guillemin, said: "People in industry need to have some direction."
But fashion has become deregulated by fast fashion players, who leapfrog the slow manufacturing process thanks to factories primed for in-season ranges. They are then able to react when a new dye is introduced, or a color becomes popular. Basic items like T-shirts can be colored and into stores within weeks.
While fashion endeavors to mix slowly evolving shifts in color with flibbertigibbet injections, other businesses are becoming more fashionable in their approach to color.
"In the last three years, interiors, lifestyle, automotive, architects and product manufacturers have started seeing color as a key motivator," said Raymond of Future Laboratory, adding: "Color can make a product seem premium or aspirational. So for very little increase in cost, they can put up the price substantially."
Seasonality has expanded beyond fashion and invaded other sectors, wooing buyers with this season's iPod, dishes or paint. Nash said: "The future of color forecasting is in industry and in interiors. People are spending more of their disposable income looking after their homes. The color of washing-up bowls or plastic salt and pepper pots is a big thing."
The turnaround of color in interiors operates at a pace much closer to fashion's traditional cycle. It's about colors evolving from season-to-season, one shade dropping off and another pushing through. "You get a movement of color in interiors," added Nash.
As much as there is commonality in palettes from luxury to mass market and across industries, the range and subtlety is diverse. Many companies require tailored reports, for instance. And different groups of consumers enjoy quite divergent tastes.
"In a financial recession, the top end of the market head to their default: dark palettes, blue, gray, silver. At the lower end, expect brighter, brasher colors, especially in packaging and in the automotive trade," said Raymond.
Tim Hoar, business development manager at London's renowned Central Saint Martin's College, said: "People take color for granted. But it's a very intuitive thing, probably the first thing you decide on. If they get the color wrong, it won't sell."
A major influence on today's color trends is concern for the environment; the most obvious reflection being the emergence of forest green. "We're getting quite bogged down in what is ecological and environmental," said Kate Scully, an independent forecaster who is writing a book on color for the publisher Laurence King. "Sustainability is an issue that impacts hugely on the way we view textiles and fashion."
Raymond of Future Laboratory expanded on the psychology: "Brown, green, blue and faded yellow make consumers assume a product is more environmentally friendly. There's no reality to it. But those colors are now shorthand for sustainability."
Foden of D.cipher said that ethical concerns were having an impact on popular colors - and not only in the swing toward green. Orange is a strong color contender for winter 2008 and one that has a real environmental basis. "A dye stuff company called Rubia Pigmenta Naturalia visited all the forecasting houses with colors dyed from the madder root," she said.
"Since the 1850s red has been dyed using chemicals," she added, but the environmental appeal of a shade made with natural dyes helped propel orange shades into a prime market position. "What Rubia PM achieved is muted variations on red through to oranges and copper rose shades - absolutely beautiful," added Foden in praise of the Dutch company.
But there is a twist. For spring 2009, the shade is evolving into orange corals and brighter oranges. For these colors, the eco dye process goes out the window because one root can only offer so much variety. "That's the creative world," sighed Foden. "We get inspired and then go off at a tangent."
F A S H I O N & S T Y L E
CHICAGOSTYLE.COM
StyleChicago.com spoke with Leatrice Eiseman, Director of Pantone Color Institute and author of
More Alive with Color to obtain the real truth behind this season's palette.
PANTONE Fashion Color Report Fall 2008
Fall 2008 Color Trends
Pantone, a color industry leader, studies designer collections to find out what colors will be in style each season. Only the most popularly featured colors make the cut to be in its biannual Fashion Color Report.
Leatrice queries New York fashion designers for their color picks for the season.
"We have a leg up because a lot of them will tell us ahead of time, and they’ll send us sketches in advance. Some of them use the Pantone swatches so we know exactly what colors they’re using," said Eiseman.
Pantone tallies up these colors to report the most popular colors of the season. So while not every color made an appearance in every collection, at least one is was likely to show up in each collection. "Each designer has his own take on the colors of the season," said Eiseman.
Pantone tallies up these colors to report the most popular colors of the season. So while not every color made an appearance in every collection, at least one is was likely to show up in each collection. "Each designer has his own take on the colors of the season," said Eiseman.
The Palette
Season for Change
"This has been a season for change," said Eiseman, referring to the top three colors for fall. Though earth tones are the traditional choice for this season, the cool, tranquil Blue Iris, Royal Lilac, and Shady Glade tones are top picks among designers.
Blue Iris, Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2008, is even turning up in housewares such as towels and glassware, according to Eiseman. "It’s established itself as a good fall color," she said.
At Ralph Lauren, capes and a velvet and tulle dress were done in Shady Glade, while a maxi length skirt and matching jacket came in Royal Lilac. Royal Lilac also showed up in the collections of L’Wren Scott and Donna Karan’s DKNY label.
Ocher also showed up at the DKNY show on a loose-fitting turtleneck sweater. According to Eiseman yellow has gained momentum in the past few seasons, after its initial popularity in Europe. Aurora Red, another warm color on Pantone’s report, appeared on a skirt suit at Oscar de la Renta.
PANTONE'S Fall 2008 Color:
Shitake; Sketch from Elie Tahari.
Eiseman also pointed out the importance of neutrals in the top colors of the season, such as Shitake. "In an economy that’s a little dicey, people might not want to go out and take a risk with color," she said. Catharine Malandrino’s Shitake jersey dress is evidence that designers are on the same page.
From top to bottom - sketch from Reem Acra, Blue Iris;
sketch from Zac Posen, Royal Lilac;
sketch from Carmen Marc Valvo, Shady Glade - feel free to mix them together to personalize your look.
...and speaking of kitchens.
Wall Street Journal Online
INTERIOR DESIGN
Kitchens by Crayola
Cabinets, Appliances Offer More Ways
To Make a Loud Personal Statement
By June Fletcher
The next hot color for the kitchen is...you name it.
High-end kitchen appliances and cabinets used to come in just a few neutrals -- white, bisque, black,
stainless steel -- with an occasional novelty option, like fire-engine red. But this year, more
manufacturers are offering dozens and, in some cases, hundreds of vibrant color finishes -- for an
extra charge, of course -- making for some eye-popping kitchen conversation pieces: The red
refrigerator. Nordic-blue cabinets. The pumpkin range.
October 14, 2008
A kaleidoscope of diamond jewelry predicted for 2009
by Lorraine DePasque
This spring, a shake-up of earthquake-like proportions is about to happen, with something rare and wonderful at its epicenter: Natural colored diamonds.
On top of growing consumer curiosity, rising interest among high-profile designers, and broadening retailer excitement about color, the Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA) is boosting marketing and advertising to consumers and educating jewelers.
But even with consumer cravings and NCDIA initiatives in place, can colored diamonds - typically much pricer than colorless - really thrive during tremulous economic times?
Jewelry and fashion experts say yes, crediting the penchant for aspirational buying that remains embedded in the AMerican consciousness, despite the economy.
"Years ago, people didn't even look at the high end and, instead, they just struggled and said, 'WHy bother?'" says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. "But some five to eight years ago, all that began to change. No matter what shape the economy is in, consumers watch what's happening in luxury."
Technology has educated consumers, she says, while exposure to celebrities wearing natural colored diamonds has driven desire.
Eiseman, dubbed "the international color guru," predicts that 2009 should be a particularly good year for all shades of yellow diamonds, as the sunny hues have become lasting fashion favorites.
"It's the third season in a row that (Pantone has) chosen yellow as one of the top 10 fahion colors," Eiseman says. "One season doesn't mean much, but three in a row does, particularly in this country, where it's unusual for yellow to be in the top ten."
Echoing the belief that the masses look to the high end for direction is jewelry and style expert Michael O'Connor, Platinum Guild International-USA's senior vice president.
"It used to be that very few people understood colored diamonds - maybe only consumers who read the fashion publications," he says. "But today, eve those who read People magazine have seen celebrities wearing them, and so they want them too."
Such mass-market exposure has prompted manufacturers, including New York-based Waldman Diamonds Complete, to create mid-level price-range pieces that go beyond the brown and black diamonds long available via home shopping networks, among others venues.
"We did some research and found that the majority of sales in the natural yellow diamond jewelry are $20,000 to $100,000 retail," says Kenny Friedman Waldman's president and mangeing partner. "So, we developed the 'Arctic Sun Collection' of 18-karat gold jewelry, featuring natural fancy yellows in the $2999 to $7,999 range."
Currently, engagement rings and one pair of earrings are in th collection, Friedmans Says, but it will grow.
"People want equal or greater perceived value, even though they want to spend less," he says.
October 7, 2008
A tidbit on Color Psycology
What is color psychology -- and can it help you sell your home?
HowStuffWorks.com
by Jessika Toothman
It's hard for most of us to imagine a world without color, but something we could also have trouble grasping is that those colors -- whether the inviting blue of a clear summer sky or the cold impersonal gray of a waiting room -- can actually have a psychological and physical impact on us.
While everyone reacts to colors, a number of factors influence that reaction. Researchers haven't been able to pin down any universal classification system that will be able to predict how people will interpret and respond to the colors around them. This is because a person's culture, gender, age, emotional and mental state, specific experiences, mood -- as well as the appearance and combination of the colors themselves -- can all affect the reaction. And even then, those reactions might vary in type and intensity from person to person. This hasn't slowed the research down one bit, though, and the field of color psychology (closely entwined with that of color preference) is a popular one.
Research into color psychology isn't solely for academic purposes either. Many aspects of marketing focus on the impact colors have on people. Everything from logos to lobbies can be designed with color psychology in mind. People even consider the choice of colors in aspects of dress like fashion and uniforms and the décor of rooms like hospital rooms and nurseries.
On the next page, we'll spend some time examining how different colors affect us and see if there are any likely candidates someone could consider splashing on the walls to help a house sell.
The Color Wheel
Colors can elicit strong reactions in people, both physical and psychological, as well as various symbolic associations.
Glancing at each color on the list below, think for a moment how it makes you feel, then read on to see if you had a common reaction. If not, don't worry. It's not an exhaustive list, and some event, personality trait or demographic factor might have made you feel another reaction. For example, if you've almost drowned in the ocean, blue might not be a very relaxing color for you. If you're an eight-year-old girl, you might scorn anything other than pink.
Let's run through that old trusty eight-crayon Crayola box:
• Red
Red is the color most people have the strongest associations with and reactions to. People frequently report feelings of strength, courage, aggression and excitement. Red can elicit an increased heart rate and energy level, and just a dash of red on something can really draw someone's attention. Whether it's a stop sign, a Valentine's day card or a warning label, red is there to catch the eye.
• Orange
Orange can spark some serious reactions, too -- people typically love it or they hate it. Orange is often linked with flamboyance, energy, comfort and warmth.
• Yellow
Yellow can be a happy, cheerful color. People often report feelings such as enthusiasm, energy, excitement and optimism when viewing it. In some shades and amounts, yellow is believed to be mentally and creatively stimulating, but in others it can be associated with cowardice, fear and anxiety.
• Green
Green is a color commonly used in expressions and symbolic associations, and it's only second to blue as a favorite color. Natural shades of green can feel refreshing, balanced and soothing, but other shades of green can invoke sickly, bland or slimy feelings. Green is often symbolic of concepts like peace, envy, luck and fertility.
• Blue
The majority of people agree: blue's the best. Maybe that's because this color can actually trigger the body to produce calming chemicals. Blue frequently invokes words like dependable, loyal, logical, soothing, calm and focused, although some shades can bring feelings that are more dynamic and exhilarating, or cold and distant. Blue also tends to increase worker and athlete productivity.
• Purple
Purple is the balance between the liveliness of red and the serenity of blue, so some uncertain shades of purples can leave people feeling a little uneasy or introspective. Others can invoke feelings of loyalty, quality, mysticism and wisdom.
• Black
Black is a powerful color, often bringing to mind authoritativeness and other strong, sometimes overwhelming, emotions. Black can be associated with grieving in the Western hemisphere, but head East and the color white makes people think of mourning.
• Brown
Brown often conjures up feelings of stability and naturalness. People commonly report experiencing sensations of reliability when they see brown and a sense of order and wholesomeness.
Of course, these are just some of the main basic colors; people can actually see millions of colors, which vary from each other in several ways. Above, we split them up by the some of the different hues they come in, but colors can come in different saturations -- how vivid or pale (unsaturated) a color is. Finally, colors can be judged by their brightness (intensity or value) -- a color's amount of light energy.
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