Ready or not, we are on the cusp of New York Fashion Week. It kicks off this Friday, September 9 with the Proenza Schouler show and ends on Wednesday, September 14 with a big Tom Ford finale. Pantone Color Institute just released its sneak peek into the colors you’ll be seeing a lot of on this year’s runways. Think of it as something of a preview of what your wardrobe for spring and summer 2023 should include.
What colors has the Pantone Color Institute chosen in its Fashion Color Trend Report for spring and summer 2023? It’s going to be sorbet shop saturated colors meets coastal grandma subdued hues. Don’t worry it will all work out.
The Top 10 standout colors are vivid tones including Fiery Red and a purply pink called Beetroot Purple. Sorbet shades of bold Tangelo orange and Peach Pink flow into the lemoniest “luminescent” Empire Yellow and the limiest exotic Lovebird. The colors Pantone has chosen are no shrinking violets. In fact, purple gets a hard pass altogether next spring.
Then you have the new classics which lead us right back to coastal grandma chic ― a mélange of neutrality and earthy elegance.
Pantone paints a clear direction for the neutrals with two off-whitey tints that just barely bring a hint of color. They predict it will be the new thing for spring. Taking an off-white and adding a tad of color to create a neutral that works with everything. These off-white colors called Gray Lilac and Vanilla Cream offer a clean, light contrast to the vibrancy of the bright standout shades. There is also a Southern porch shade called Skylight Blue. And an off-brown Macchiato shade “with a layer of foam” just begging to take a stroll on the beach.
These shades for spring will surely show up on the runways during Fashion Week. Pantone is rarely wrong. They see colors that express freedom and quirkiness. From energetic to tranquil. From chaos to quiet.
It’s a different type of Fashion Week preview.
New York Fashion Week’s preliminary schedule includes 110 confirmed designers. This year marks the 60th of the Council for Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) serving as the organizer and official scheduler (the ringmaster if you will) of fashion’s biggest circus.
Now, we know which colors are coming.
