Better Late Than Never?

I think that depends entirely on who you ask, but for anyone eagerly anticipating my bi-annual color gripefest, the wait is finally over.  Let's get into it!

Earlier this year I promised that I'd be back this September with a follow-up post to my Summer color complain-a-thon.  Well, Fashion Week just sort of came and went this year without much fanfare, and maybe this is just me getting old, or something, but I was completely uninspired from the models, to the designs, to the celebrity guests, I just ... I don't know what's going on with fashion right now, but it is so UN-exciting to me in such a profound way, that even my thesaurus shrugs at trying to find the correct words for it.  For me, Spring New York Fashion Week was like the year all of those social media "influencers" were invited to the Met Gala, and no one really understood the assignment and struggled to stay on theme, while all of us onlookers were left kind of scratching our heads over the whole thing.  The craziest part for me is that I don't even believe something has to be to MY personal taste in order to be good design, interesting, or thought-provoking, and I'm STILL coming up short on things that were worth a second look.  That being said, the color trend reports were released as expected, and uhm ... well, let's just rip off the band aid and have a look.

New York

Not to put it too bluntly, but what in the 1970s Fresh Autumn Hell is this?  Not only are they a disappointment next to 2023's Spring colors, but this palette is so dusty and sad it's not even as stimulating as the moody Fall colors dominating commerce right now (click here & scroll to the bottom for a reminder)!  I will grant you, it's not exactly an oddity for pastels to have strong representation in a Spring palette, and on their own I am getting a hint of Wham! vibes off of Desert Flower, Capri, Pastel Lilac, Lemon Drop, and even Chambray Blue to an extent that I can't exactly be mad at.  When I think of warm Summer months, I immediately connect them with a carefree frivolity, and youthfulness that is perfectly captured in early 1980s Pop music in a way that no other era or genre ever could.  However, that troika of Design Mistakes Past in the top right corner has me concerned.  

I think everyone of a certain age shudders at memories of quite possibly the worst color combination of an entire decade (until it was usurped by the Suicide Blue + Vomit Pink concoction that swept American suburbs in the 1980s like a silent plague), and I'm honestly surprised to see them all here in one palette ... Especially for Spring, did I mention that already?  You can dress them up, and call them whatever you want, but we all (especially my latch-key Gen X-ers) know Avocado Green, Rust, and Harvest Gold when we see them, in fact I'm surprised the group wasn't rounded out with a deep chocolate brown, though Rooibos Tea is making a valiant effort here.  According to Pantone:

colors for NYFW Spring 2024 are infused with a hint of nostalgia... 

I'll say.  

If you're over 40 years of age and told me you never pulled a frozen chicken from a refrigerator to defrost, or set an oven to pre-heat before your parents got home from work (or wherever Boomers were during the day) from appliances in this colorway, I'd call you a liar straight to your face!  We ALL did.  These colors were everywhere, and scarred many of us for life.  I simply can not believe my eyes right now.

London

London, however, seems to be making a bold showing, and at least embraces the vibrancy of the season, but ... Mustard ... ? ... really???  If you insist, I guess.  Chutney, I'm looking at you too, pal, sittin' yourself right there next to that brazen orange!  I have to say, it's not leaving me very hopeful for what they're going to drop on us this coming Fall. To me, both of these palettes read as two sides of the same Autumn / Winter coin; one with striking hues often found in the final flush of the garden, while the other a bit more frosted over, but neither of them have that jaunty, invigorated spirit or excitement that I think of when the calendar rolls 'round to Spring and Summer.  I may be completely off base here, and am willing to eat crow later on ... I suppose I'll just have to take a closer look at the way designers used them, and how that will trickle down to us regular folks on the street before I make my final opinion.  I am hopeful that I'll be pleasantly surprised, but as of right now, I'm white-knuckling that hope.

Nobody asked, but what I think would make a nice change of pace is for Pantone to scrap the neutrals each year, and give us a full spectacle of 16 actual colors being used across collections.  That would give us 5 extra colors each season to, I don't know, maybe make these palettes make more sense?  Or feel more cohesive?  Or tell a more complete story?  At the very least, stop insulting everyone's intelligence by making a point of including FIVE neutrals every single time.  It's been decades, and fashion no longer has the air of glamorous mystery it once had, cycles don't follow the same rules anymore, everything is more accessible, fewer things need to be "decoded" for the masses nowadays, so one has to wonder, how many times do we really need to see some iteration of beige, white, gray, black, and navy regurgitated year after year?  We get it.  Neutrals are a thing; a staple in the wardrobe, no less, but I don't think anyone is actually out there fretting over whether their closet contains the correct shade of off-white, ivory, ecru, or dole-whip every season, certainly not to the extent that we need them included in the main palette selection.  Anyway, that might just be a me-grievance because I'm so bored with all things fashion right now, and perhaps there are people out there that appreciate several decades worth of the same five neutrals being displayed each time ... There's a certain continuity and comfort I can acknowledge about that—something on which folks can rely in a world where nothing is guaranteed.

While I put off holding my breath for that modification, one welcome change has come in the form of the statements accompanying each palette this season.  Finally, the elation and bizarre level of jubilation over racing toward the future have been dialed back to a more believable level than what's been conveyed in the last several years' worth of reports.  Now, it's a little more about self-expression, imagination, comfort, and a pining for simpler times rather than the full-throated exultation for all things futuristic as we blindly charge ahead at breakneck speed that's been alluded to in past reports.  I mean, we're still plunging into a bold new era, apparently, but there's something a bit softer, and introspective, and even introverted about the press releases this time around that leads me to believe that at least one person at Pantone HQ is attempting to put a finger on the pulse of what's truly happening, and being felt out here.

And if you've come from my previous post on the topic, or remember the prediction I made at the end of it, and have even the smallest awareness of my sense of humor you will know upon laying my eyes on the 2024 Spring / Summer color palette I was equal parts amused, and astonished by what met my gaze.  Is it possible that I'm world's best guesser, or was this a ludicrous coincidence, or am I being trolled by a Pantone intern (no, I am not actually delusional enough to believe a 15 year old blog with six and a half readers is being trolled by the leading color institute in the world, but it'd be a lot funnier if it were true!)???  Well, just have a look for yourself, and enjoy ...

I ... I have no choice but to Stan.

xoxo