We have traveled a long way to get from the deep red wine color Marsala (Pantone’s color of the year for 2015) to Rose Quartz and Serenity, the colors of 2016. They are about as opposite as you can get.  From Marsala’s strong presence and blood pressure heightening hue, we have leaped to calming soft pink and blue. Perhaps as we enter into an election year and all the strife it will inevitably produce, the color forecasters felt we’d need a bit of serenity in our closet! Truth be told; I already do.

Rose Quartz

According to Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone’s executive director, “with our hectic lives and the frenzy around us, there is an increasing demand for tranquility.” (In Style, January, 19).  Too true, but have you ever considered that societal changes and trends affect the colors stylists choose for the fashions we will wear?  It wasn’t until mid way through my fashion career that I realized this truth.  A designer once told me that when the economy is good, the colors get lighter and when it is bad, they get darker.  When you consider color can cause physical reactions within our bodies (excitement or calm, for example) it isn’t surprising that color trends are impacted by our world.

Rose Quarts, for example, reminds me of softness, the early stages of a sunset, and everything feminine.  Serenity is a soft blue like the light blue sky in springtime.  Imaging these two colors causes a relaxed sigh to escape my lips.  I find myself smiling as I write this blog post and listen to ocean waves playing in the background.  That place – sunsets, blue skies and ocean waves- sounds like a great alternative to the 20 some degrees outside my office window.

Interestingly, Rose Quartz is a warm color and Serenity a cool color, so by combining the two you have a yin and yang, so to speak…a complete picture.  Eiseman calls it “balance.”  I like it.  It feels right to me.  Let these two colors lead you into your new spring wardrobe, destined to help you feel calmer, softer, and perhaps a little sweeter to those around you.