No. 18-3943

Every year Pantone does their colors of the season and they let it be known with much fanfare at New York fashion week that these are the colors you will be wearing for the season. Sometimes they are dead on insofar as what we see strolling down the runway somewhat matches their prediction. On the streets though, the color of the year is less important compared to the color of the day. Take a look at any street fashion photography blog and the color has less to do with a corporate mandate and more to do with an individual feeling.

That being said, Pantone’s meticulous selection of Blue Iris is not some sort of random undertaking. There’s research, a certain degree of deliberation (to the tune of five people) according to the executive editor of Pantone and some trendspotting. Cathy Horyn’s article in the New York Times this morning jibes a bit with her blog post yesterday where she says:

Tomorrow’s paper will have a story about Pantone’s choosing Blue Iris as its color for 2008. The reporting did yield a certain symmetry: Raf Simons’ dresses and pantsuits in Yves Klein blue for Jil Sander’s fall 2007; a super cool and curvy sofa by Zaha Hadid in a similar hue, and those blossomy colors in the spring 2008 Balenciaga show. Of course that only proves that Pantone is on the curve, and not ahead of it, and I recognize the pure publicity value of “naming” a color from the 21st century palette. As if.

So is Blue Iris (or shades of) the color of the year for 2008? Depends on the day you ask.

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