Earlier this month, New York Fashion Week came and went, and I honestly couldn't tell you a single thing about it besides the fact that I'll be over here (at some point) catching up, and that the Pantone Fashion Color Trend Report for Spring / Summer 2027 has dropped ... And ... It's not bad? The colors are pretty, and light, and floaty, and fun, and exactly what you want Spring and Summer to feel like.
Oh ... Oh, no.
Maybe color isn't meant to be explained, but color can certainly do (and has done throughout history) more than its share of explaining. We've talked about this before, but there's this phenomenon in fashion where the overarching theme of current trends reflect what is happening in society. You would think that when times get tough, and we have to tighten our belts (so to speak), that silhouettes would get sharper, or more severe; clothes look a little more serious, fewer frills, less embellishment, colors to trend toward army drab, and other muted tones. It would be perfectly logical for garments to look more austere during conflict, or economic downturns, but that simply is not what happens for the most part. Sure, silhouettes can become leaner, and hemlines often do shorten especially if rationing is involved, or trade has been negatively impacted. Obviously, less available fabric = smaller clothes, or at least less voluminous clothes. That said, you will often find that the worse we are doing economically, or geopolitically, etc. the sillier our clothes become, because we feel the need to manufacture artificial happiness. When the candy-coated colors show up coupled with ruffles, and bedazzlement it's time to pause, and take a look around. Am I recommending you race to town, and hoard toilet paper because lavender, and light pink were put in a color palette together? No.
Though, you might want to grab a few extra cases of water on your next shopping trip, because directly after Laurie Pressman's cheerleading of the palette for, "showcasing an appreciation of hues inspired by our natural environment in its purest simplicity," the release goes on to inform us that for this season's report, Pantone partnered with Raspberry AI on a series of AI-generated materials and images to give creative industry insiders a starting point for the season, and (my favorite part) explore how each of these colors could look in the real-world. Maybe I'm the one who's lost the plot, but I think things like this are absurd, and I don't think handing over our creativity to machines is the way to go. Far from being a Luddite, I think tech has its place in society, but I also firmly believe that if you don't use it, you lose it, and I think it's a travesty for artists (practical, fine, visual, musical, or otherwise) to serve their imaginations up on a chopping block. AI seems like such a neat tool until you can't think for yourself anymore, you've got an attention span the rivals the lifespan of a fruit fly, and you've murdered your imagination. Am I overreacting? Me? Never ... But once we've paved paradise, and put up a parking lot, at least we'll have AI to mock-up a semi-accurate depiction of what nature used to look like, so we can pause the doomscrolling and enjoy a 3x3" digital image of it for 1.6 seconds. At least when all of our trees are gone, we can thank God that we know what an orange alligator clutch bag looks like!
Meanwhile, Pantone's Leatrice Eiseman chimes in with her excitement over next season's exuberance, and folks, I don't quite know how to tell you this, but she broke out the whim-sicle ... This is not a drill, someone needs to fire up the Regretsy version of the bat signal, and get that site back up and running, STAT ... April Winchell, we need you! I don't know exactly what sort of trying times are ahead for us, but the last time I heard execs talking about whimsy, everyone's houses were in foreclosure, or we were neck-deep in another pointless war, so, you know, I'm not really all that enthusiastic to find out what could possibly go wrong this time around. Don't take my word for it, but the way we're being primed to put on our glad rags, and kick up our heels next Spring? I wouldn't be surprised if we were full-blown boots-on-the-ground in some random place by the end of this October.
No one wants me to be wrong about this more than I do, so let's keep our fingers crossed for that. In the meantime, take care of each other out there! And of all of you weirdos who keep coming back to this corner of the internet, for God only knows what reason, I hope that you're happy, healed, whole, fed, warm / cool / comfortable, safe, and above all ... Loved.
xoxo
