As December comes to a close, one of my favorite things to look forward to is Pantone’s the of Color of the Year and it’s finally upon us — 2019’s shade is Living Coral! Pantone describes the hue as an “animating and life-affirming shade of orange with a golden undertone” which sounds like just the type of color I could get used to seeing.
More than simply a reflection of color trends, the selection of a shade to mark each year is a “concerted cultural moment” and I’m excited to see this moment chronicled in fashion, interiors, and all myriads of design. Rooted in the seriousness of the fate of our coral reefs and with a nod to playfulness, living coral is an impossibly fluorescent yet subdued hue. From vibrantly pigmented beauty products to the artfully aged walls of the Moroccan Medina, coral seems, all of a sudden, to be omnipresent and seriously smile-inducing.
Pantone’s color institute executive, Leatrice Eiseman, told Refinery29 of the hue’s timely appointment: “it expresses warmth, that kind of harmony, human interaction and social connection that we’re looking for. I think that’s something so inherent in the human mind. It pulls you in, gathers you in, in such a warm and inviting way that it opens up an avenue to positive thoughts, not negative. That, we felt, was a really vital part of expressing the Color of the Year with Living Coral.”