2014 Pantone Color of the Year: Radiant Orchid
Radiant Orchid 18-3224 — fuchsia, purple and pink in one captivating harmony.
The Pantone Color of the Year for 2014 was Radiant Orchid, PANTONE 18-3224. It blooms with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination — an expressive, creative and embracing purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.
The secret is in its construction: a captivating harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones. From those pink foundations, Radiant Orchid emanates great joy, love and health — a warmer, friendlier purple than the shade family usually offers, and one the fashion industry adopted with unusual speed.
Spring 2014 Took It Straight to the Runway
A dazzling attention-getter, Radiant Orchid permeated the runways during the spring 2014 fashion shows and was already making its way onto the red carpet before the year began. Fashion designers featured in the PANTONE Fashion Color Report Spring 2014 — including Emerson by Jackie Fraser-Swan, Juicy Couture and Yoana Baraschi — incorporated Radiant Orchid into their spring collections.
Pantone expected the afterlife to be long: variations of this hue would carry into men's and women's clothing and accessories throughout the year. Orchid-tinted variations are the key phrase — once a Color of the Year is built from three undertones, designers can lean toward any of them, producing a whole orchid family from near-pink to near-violet that all reads as one trend.
The Glow Effect
Radiant Orchid's rosy undertones radiate on the skin, producing a healthy glow when worn by both men and women. That is a beauty claim made about a clothing color, and it held up in practice: orchid near the face — a blouse, a scarf, a tie — warms the complexion the way blush does, without a cosmetic in sight.
In beauty itself, Pantone called Radiant Orchid a modern and surprisingly versatile shade that enlivens the skin, making all who wear it feel more healthy and energetic. Orchid lipsticks, blushes and nail colors multiplied through 2014, and the shade's cool-warm balance meant one orchid lipstick could flatter customers a strict blue-pink or a strict coral would have excluded.
Wearing a Three-Color Purple
Because the hue already contains pink and fuchsia, it pairs most gracefully with its own relatives: deeper plums below it, soft pinks above it, a tonal orchid outfit built like a watercolor gradient. Against neutrals it behaves like Emerald's successor — one saturated note against gray, black or white — but gray is its particular friend, the cool backdrop that lets the pink undertones glow.
For the cautious, accessories carried the trend: orchid heels, an orchid clutch, orchid enamel jewelry. For the committed, the year's signature look was a full orchid dress at a formal occasion — the red carpet appearances Pantone noted early on proved that the shade could hold an entire evening silhouette without help.
Fabric choice tunes the shade's temperature. In chiffon and organza the pink undertones dominate and Radiant Orchid turns romantic; in wool crepe and tailored cloth the purple deepens and it turns businesslike; in satin it is pure evening. One number, three moods — the practical payoff of a hue blended from three colors is that the cloth, not the dye, decides which one leads on a given day.
It also bridged generations unusually well. The orchid family carried a vintage perfume-counter nostalgia for older wearers while reading as a fresh digital-age pastel-bright to younger ones, so the same dress could be styled with pearls or with white sneakers and mean something different — and correct — both times.
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Common Questions
What colors are blended inside Radiant Orchid?
Three: it is a harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones. The pink keeps the purple warm and wearable, the fuchsia gives it energy, and the purple gives it depth — which is why the shade intrigues the eye instead of sitting still.
Is Radiant Orchid warm or cool?
Deliberately both. It blends cool and warm undertones, and that mixture is why Pantone called purple, in this form, flattering to many hair, eye and skin tones — the rosy undertones radiate on the skin and produce a healthy glow.
Can men wear a purple like Radiant Orchid?
Pantone said its rosy undertones produce a healthy glow when worn by both men and women, and variations of the hue carried into men's clothing and accessories throughout 2014 — most often in ties, pocket squares, shirts and knitwear.