**Have you, or a loved one been injured by this color choice? Did you attempt to seek treatment, only to find that the hospital had been completely abandoned?**
Y'know, just when I thought "quiet quitting" was some junk-term breathlessly conjured by desperate journalists with nothing left to write about, Pantone's Fall / Winter 2026-2027 Color Trend Report landed, just over a month ago with a muffled thud, and oh my god.
I swear. No really ... Well, I didn't make it a resolution or anything, but I truly was going to try griping and complaining a lot less this year, but the way the color-universe is testing me right now? I fear I'm going to fail spectacularly! Let's add it to the pile of things I've botched lately, and dive right in.
It all started with Pantone's announcement of the 2026 Color of the Year. If you're not from around these parts, you may not know that since 1999 the Pantone Color Institute releases a color each December that is supposed to encapsulate the vibe for the upcoming year, and I've taken it upon myself (in recent years) to publish an annual complaint to accompany this decision. You can, of course, see more of this, and my other cantankerous color criticisms: Here. It's not that I always hate the color itself, it's that I can't stand the phony process. What is it all of us oldheads used to say?
Don't hate the player, hate the game.
And I do. I really, really do. But this time, I don't just hate the way the color was chosen, I hate the color itself, the sentiment behind it, and the overarching message that's been coming through with these "predictions" and seasonal color palettes for the last several years. Mon Dieu! How many times can we be told to get excited about a future that isn't ever likely to exist, and how many times can we be reminded to essentially Keep Calm and Carry On as if the world as we know it wasn't ending? Okay, that sounds a little dramatic, but is it? Can you honestly tell me the world we're living in right now is the one for which you were raised to be part, to participate, and dare I say, thrive? Coming up as the tail end of the Gen-Xers myself, I can't ... I see the Millennials looking around confused as well, and if things don't change in a major way (and soon) the youngsters coming up behind them basically have nothing to look forward to anymore except soul-crushing exploitation just to survive, and yet every season / year we're told by color forecasters, and the deteriorating fashion industry, of all people, that there's still some bright, shiny utopia up ahead, and if we just keep squinting hard enough, we might catch a glimpse...
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
What in the future-faking, emotionally abusive relationship is going on here?! Obviously, the goal is to keep us consuming. That is always, always, always the goal. Full stop. However, we won't do that if we're all deeply depressed, and suicidal so, naturally, they have to keep dangling the carrot in the hopes that we're hungry enough to continue the chase, and honestly, corporate marketing teams have their work cut out for them with us willingly trading our attention spans for another dopamine hit off our silly palm-sized, light-up, brain-rot slop boxes as we slobber, and scroll for more. It certainly can't be easy to come up with campaigns that matter, or captivate anymore - enter the rise of the Influencer Economy, of course, but after a short (in the grand scheme of things), but extremely annoying run, even they're burning out!
What happens when the tech grows stale (because it already is), and your products (because make no mistake, both the influencer and influencee along with the merchandise being punted is the product) wake up to the notion that growth for the mere sake of growth is actually just cancer?
At the very least, the press releases have stopped reminding us we're in unprecedented times, and have quit trying to sell fake enthusiasm for the future. I mean, what was it, seven seasons in a row they were banging on about stepping into exciting new eras, as like, everything continued to become increasingly worse? So, that seems to be one step back towards some semblance of reality. Nevertheless, I can't help but notice the trend of soft language creeping in, evoking scenes of comfort and security, replacing the razzle-dazzle battle cries of forward-ho, no matter what! This year it's: Serenity. Relaxation. Indulgence. Authenticity. Lightness ... Which all sound really wonderful, truth be told, if it weren't for the fact that it's all totally out of step with our current reality. Maybe it's just supposed to be another dose of hopium in a world gone mad, yet I can't help but feel something a bit more insidious creeping in with each new declaration from our color overlords.
I can only get so excited about dirty-white, and the Live♡Laugh♡Love, Kumbaya of it all in the first place...
But ... And this is where I can't tell if it's a beautifully orchestrated manipulation, or magnificent ineptitude on their part ... This exhaustive normalization of the wholly abnormal with neutral colors, and neutralizing platitudes is rather disconcerting. I'm left trying to parse out if I'm witnessing the Siren's call set to hypnotize us into being good little customers, or the swansong of an industry in the full throes of a death-rattle? Now, Reader, I know this sounds like a pretty negative outlook, and like I must be living under a permanent dark cloud, which, despite the name, I assure you I do not! Not all that deep down, I'm actually a pretty hardcore optimist ... Like, annoyingly so. I believe the sun will always rise, and each new day is a fresh start, when my feet hit the floor in the morning my brain says, "Let's DO this!" and more often than not, I trust everything really will turn out okay. That said, I can't remember a time in my life where I shied away from the doom & gloom of life just because it was a little bit inconvenient, or harshed my mellow, or whatever. A person can still see the larger picture (you don't always have to crop the ugly bits!), and have a firm grip on hope without playing pretend. And so, here I am with these latest trend roll-outs, finding absolutely nothing about the passivity of the language surrounding them particularly inspirational, or aspirational, wondering if the apparel industry is just doing its part in manufacturing apathy ... Keeping us rapt with the lullaby.
Or, is this just what getting old feels like?
Heavens no, it couldn't be that! I may be a washed up hag, but I'm still delighted by other things even when I'm thoroughly bored with *waves hands wildly* ALL of this. Maybe they're just getting old. I mean 64 years in the game, it CAN'T be incompetence, can it? As far as I can tell, it's down to one of three things:
They know exactly what they're doing.
They don't care anymore.
They're completely out of touch.
And then ... I read, possibly, the most depressing headline ever written to coincide with a color palette launch: How 'The Devil Wears Prada' Sequel Inspired Pantone's NYFW Fashion Color Trend Report for Fall 2026 (from Women's Wear Daily, February 11, 2026). Once my brain stopped leaking out of my ear, I felt I owed every tinfoil-hat-wearing-conspiracy-theorist an apology, because apparently we really ARE living inside a simulation. Because, what do you mean the industry-wide trend report is based on a MOVIE?!?! Granted, just like the last one, I know they're going to use real garments dreamt up by real designers, displayed at real shows, but it's all still going to be highly selected (from a pile of ... stuff - I couldn't help it) material specifically chosen for the film. It's not a documentary. It's not going to show hours and hours of runway footage, or probably even a healthy cross-section of what next Fall has to offer. We'll get a jaunty little montage of a few looks set to some song remixed to hell and back whilst nostalgia-maxxing us to the limit, a sprinkle of movie-magic, and bingo(!) we'll get weeks and weeks of think-pieces on how this film captured a moment in fashion like lightning in a bottle, meanwhile a lot of people's work will get overlooked, and discarded like it never mattered, because we're letting the established tone for an entire trade be filtered through the lens of a costume department from a single movie. Crazy work if you ask me ...
But here it is:
I uh, I, well, I never really love it laid out in these grids in the first place, but I'm not exactly bowled over by what I'm seeing here. Maybe I just don't exactly love that during my favorite season of the year, I have a steaming heap of dog-vomit-esque colors to look forward to. I also appreciate how they just left Acacia on there from this Spring / Summer. They're like, "Nah, we ain't fillin' allat!" Do they really think custard yellow is so cute it needs to be in two consecutive palettes, or are they trying to telegraph a little savvy-shopper messaging at us, like, "Look! You can re-use Spring pieces for Fall," like all normal people who wear clothes actually already do, and as if the think-tank making this list cares about the current economical instability we're all facing? Or is this part of that good old fashioned quiet quitting?
And maybe that's what kind of saddens me about the whole thing; watching industry professionals just sort of pack it in, and give up. In my twenties, I couldn't think of a cooler job than working for one of these companies - I saw it as the complete opposite of being a gatekeeper, or trend-tyrant, I thought of it as being the conduit that brought information to the masses in a positive, and significant way. I mean, fashion history, is history. We can tease it for being frivolous, but I love how Photographer Bill Cunningham put it,
"Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life."
Thus, eventually becoming a reality all its own. The truth is, I love fashion. I love that it's a language. I love that it's art on both a micro, and macro level. I love that it's a mirror. I love what it records, and conveys of our history as humans on Earth. I love the beauty of it. I love the ugliness, utilitarianism, and brutality of it. I love to see how people choose to express themselves to the world.
And I loath the industry.
But now I think it'd be pretty rad to have a job where I can just kick my feet up on a desk, turn off my brain entirely, and just make shit up. So, Pantone, if you're hiring ... Gimme a shout & make me an offer I can't refuse!
As for the rest of you haters, see you in September!
