Hi, Emma! I’m so pumped to find out what colour 2026 is going to be. Fill me in!
Brace yourself, Nick. Every year since 1999 Pantone chooses a colour for the year, a representation of the zeitgeist – from how we’re feeling to what we’re wearing, how we’re styling our homes and even our eyebrows. Last year’s was the darker shade of beige “mocha mousse”, the year before that was the soft, warm “peach fuzz”.
This year’s pick is even more baffling. It’s “cloud dancer”, a “billowy, balanced white”, according to Pantone.
Laurie Pressman, vice-president of Pantone Color Institute, said it is “a key structural color … allowing all colors to shine”.
Hmmm, cloud dancer, sounds … wait, white? Are they trolling us? Is it even a proper colour?
How do you describe the colour of clouds? Milk? A blank page? White is considered a colour by some but essentially all colour is a range of visible light. It’s one of the colours in my kid’s crayon box so I’m saying yes.
Whether Pantone is trolling us is harder to ascertain. It says cloud dancer mixes well with others, isn’t overstimulating, makes a minimalist statement and exudes quiet sophistication.
The reactions, though, are not as complimentary. Some say Pantone is completely “Pantonedeaf”. The fashion and trend forecaster Mandy Lee called it “disappointing”. Others have likened it to the coded promotion of eugenics in the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad.
Yeah, right, hopefully they’re cheerfully oblivious about the fact this is not a great time to be pointedly celebrating whiteness … So how should I, a person rarely adjacent to a catwalk, make use of this information in my daily life? I just painted my kitchen ceiling white, does that count?
It counts. As would your headphones, or your bathtub.
It’s funny you mention catwalks, because many of this year’s have been bright, bold and fuzzy, including naturally dyed fake feathers on the runway at Stella McCartney’s Paris fashion week show.
White featured, as it always does, in simple silk T-shirts at Chanel, collared dresses at Givenchy, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wore a crisp all-white ensemble to Balenciaga’s Paris show. The US first lady, Melania Trump, is often seen wearing all white.
The good news is: you probably already own something in the “discrete” (sic) and “understated” colour of the year. As Pressman said, Cloud Dancer “represents a more sustainable choice for the eco-conscious”, and to me that means not having to buy anything new at all.
AT LAST, a fashion trend for the deeply unmotivated. A blank page, if you will. A cocoon of monochromatic zen amid the chaos. OK, I’m on board. Are you planning a whiteout for your wardrobe?
Absolutely not. Have you tried removing tomato sauce stains from a white shirt? I don’t need more laundry disasters in 2026.
I do own a pair of once-white Birkenstocks though, and those never go out of style.
