Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Fashion color cues are the signals from which the industry and its customers read the colors of the moment: the palettes shown by influential designers, the colors repeated across collections, street style and media, and the merchandising that confirms them in stores. Reading the cues early is a working skill in design, buying and styling.
Fashion Color Cues by Apparel Search - Terms of Interest to the Fashion Industry
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Did you ever wonder why when a new season is ushered in, many designer collections from the runways of New York, Paris, and Milan, seem to reflect similar design themes or sources of inspiration? Whether it's a certain color palette or trend such as nautical looks, military style, or vintage, Apparel Search recognizes that the same styles seem to appear in countless collections across the globe.
When setting out to design a collection for an upcoming season, designers look to trend and color experts for creative direction and inspiration. There are several key color sources, which include renowned color authority Pantone, which is widely used worldwide. Pantone offers specific tools that assist designers with the color selection process. Its Pantone View Colour System, which is a biannual trend forecasting tool, offers seasonal color direction and inspiration 24 months before a particular collection will debut. It reports on the upcoming trends, which will eventually hit menswear, women's wear, activewear, cosmetics, and industrial design.
Pantone also offers its Pantone Fashion + Home Color System, which is used in the apparel, home furnishings, and interior design industries. It consists of 1,925 colors that enable designers to experiment with different palettes and color schemes. Also, the styles, colors, and trends we see strutting down the fashion runways are often an indication of what will eventually impact the home market�everything from furniture to home accessories.
Of course, style remains a key driver when making purchasing decisions, but color also plays a vital role. "The power that color wields is seen at every level of communication: in corporate identification, packaging, signage, advertising on television, billboards, in print media, on the computer, at point of purchase and in the product itself," says Leatrice Eiseman. "Color is often called the 'silent salesperson,' and in many cases must immediately create a brand identity and most importantly, help to make the sale. At the very least (as on a web page or in a print ad) it must create enough interest or curiosity to induce the would-be buyer to find out more about the product or service."
By Regina Cooper September 2008
Below are a few examples of the fashion color trend articles you can find online:
Spring Fashion Color Trends 2014
2014 Pantone Color of the Year
Lemon Zest Trendy For Summer 2013
The top colors for women�s
fashion for spring 2012 are:
PANTONE 17-1463 Tangerine Tango
PANTONE 13-0759
Solar Power
PANTONE 18-3628 Bellflower
PANTONE 18-2140 Cabaret
PANTONE 19-3953 Sodalite
Blue
PANTONE 14-0116 Margarita
PANTONE
14-2808 Sweet Lilac
PANTONE 14-5420 Cockatoo
PANTONE 18-1210 Driftwood
PANTONE 16-1120
Starfish
The top colors for women�s
fashion for spring 2011 are:
PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle
PANTONE 16-1349
Coral Rose
PANTONE 14-0941 Beeswax
PANTONE
18-4039 Regatta
PANTONE 15-3817 Lavender
PANTONE 15-4825 Blue Curacao
PANTONE 14-6324
Peapod
PANTONE 12-1206 Silver Peony
PANTONE
18-1235 Russet
PANTONE 15-4502 Silver Cloud
Pantone Fashion Color
Report Fall 2009
PANTONE 19-1759 American
Beauty
PANTONE 16-1212 Nomad
PANTONE 18-3520 Purple
Heart
PANTONE 17-1544 Burnt
Sienna
PANTONE 16-1143 Honey
Yellow
PANTONE 17-1929 Rapture
Rose
PANTONE 18-1306 Iron
PANTONE 15-0646 Warm Olive
PANTONE 13-1006 Cr�me Br�lée
PANTONE 19-4125 Majolica Blue
Whether it's apparel, accessories, or even home offerings, designers takes color cues from forecasting services before deciding which palettes will be used in upcoming collections.
Learn more about fashion colors in our color trends section.
Pantone Books
Fashion Books
Merchandising Books
Textile Books
The visible signals that indicate which colors are becoming important: repeated appearances in designer collections, forecasting reports, street style, celebrity dressing and retail displays.
Fashion colors, covered in the next entry, are the colors themselves as a season's palette. Cues are the evidence for them — the sightings and signals that let professionals call the palette before it is official.
Designers building a collection, buyers choosing depth by color, stylists dressing clients, and consumers deciding which new color to add to a wardrobe.
For colour worn as a mood tool in its own right, see dopamine dressing: bright, saturated colour chosen because it makes the wearer feel happier.