Fall Colours 2013

Spring colours blend into fall 2013

Choices: Pantone or Not?

Do designers influence Pantone or does Pantone influence designers? I often wonder to what extent designers use the Pantone colours for seasonal collections. The reason I ponder that question is because of some of the beautiful pieces I have seen that are no where near what Pantone is promoting. Emerald was touted as the Pantone Colour of the Year and although it is allegedly all over the runways for the fall, I must be blind to it because it's not a colour I would choose and so I suppose I ignore it. In a March post I wrote about the green focus of Pantone for Spring 2013.  

At the same time one site tells us green is happening all over the runways, another is saying that blue in every shade is the colour of the season. This same debate was presented in that March, 2013 post. 

So here is what Pantone says the top colors for women’s fashion for fall 2013 are:

PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald
PANTONE 18-4434 Mykonos Blue
PANTONE 15-0533 Linden Green
PANTONE 19-3628 Acai
PANTONE 19-1662 Samba
PANTONE 17-1452 Koi
PANTONE 18-0312 Deep Lichen Green
PANTONE 19-2045 Vivacious
PANTONE 19-4215 Turbulence
PANTONE 19-1116 Carafe

And for the men, 9 are exactly the same, just replace Vivacious with PANTONE 18-2027 Beaujolais.

There are two particular colour concepts that are fashionable and trendy for 2013 and that I love but they don't correspond with Pantone's picks.

NICE

1. Winter White: According to Glamour head to toe white in the textures relative to winter weather is one of the "most wearable fashion trends". Yet I see no white, cream, beige or ecru in the lot of Pantone colours. However, we can forgive them since "winter white" is a classic that never really goes "out".

Céline Oversize Coat Fall, 2013. Photo source: Elle

2. The powder/pastel pinks that Elle.com and Glamour have proposed for the Fall of 2013 are no where near the tone of Pantone's Vivacious yet a whole series of clothing and accessories in this pale pink are featured on Elle's website. Granted the grey under the coat and the boots could be the shade of Pantone's Turbulence but then again, pastel pink and grey has been co-ordinated forever.

When it comes to colours, really, we choose the ones we like, the ones we believe we look good in and the ones that are available to us in the clothing items we need.