Pantone Cloud Dancer
Pantone, we need to talk about your terrible choice of Colour of the Year for 2026, Cloud Dancer, aka white.
White can be a good neutral (for some of us, who it suits), and it’s fine for a bride at a wedding, as it makes her stand out from the sea of guests wearing actual colours. But it shouldn’t be the “colour of the year”.
White is a neutral, a backdrop, not the main event.
White isn’t practical; this is why it’s worn at weddings by the bride, who isn’t serving the food, feeding the kids, or cleaning the house (that day). It’s way too easy to get dirty.
There was a good reason that Jennifer Lopez’s character “borrowed” a white Gucci suit from a customer’s closet in the movie Maid in Manhattan, because a white suit says, “I don’t get my hands dirty, and I have the money to have others clean up after me”. Which is why the rich man she fell in love with (who wouldn’t have looked twice at a hotel maid) even noticed her in the first place.
White is “vanilla”, and when we describe something as “vanilla”, we mean it to be bland or boring.
- White may be a fresh new page, but it can also make you feel like you have “blank page” syndrome.
- White may be clean, but it can also be a symbol of whitewashing.
- White may be the colour of a doctor’s coat, to indicate hygiene, but it also means sterile.
Sure, there will be a bunch of different whites and creams, and there is a version that won’t necessarily make you look tired or washed out, but it may not be a colour you should be wearing if it’s not related to your colouring (no matter what the fashion retailers tell you). Sure, white goes with everything, but does it really spark joy?
There is absolutely an essential place for neutrals in your wardrobe, but these neutrals should be a reflection of your colouring, based on your hair, eye and skin colours, not dictated to you by the fashion industrial complex. If you want my tips on choosing your best neutrals to build your wardrobe around, check out this post.
We don’t all need a white shirt, or a white anything, to be honest. I quite like a white wall in my home so I can decorate with other colours without having to repaint my walls every time I want a change. So why did Pantone select white? It’s political.
Bright colours are more divisive, and you can’t sell as many of them, so producing products in white means you can sell more. Back in the Victorian era, everything was coloured, wallpaper, furnishings, clothing, and even in the 1970s, there was a lot of colour in our homes as well as what we wore. It was a time of optimism, fun and freedom. Today, we are stressed out not only by the political climate, the recovery from a worldwide pandemic, and the pressures of work, but also by neutrals like white, grey, and beige, which make the brain feel “safe” and quiet, though also bored. Manufacturers have learned that neutrals sell faster as they are the “safe” option; this is why there is so much black and beige, along with white, available in stores. Bright things feel riskier. Safe choices make bigger profits.
High anxiety also lowers colour tolerance. Stressed brains prefer muted tones because we feel colour (see my Energy of Colour Masterclass to discover more about the real power of colour and how to use it with intention). Strong colours increase emotional activity. Sadly, the more we live in a neutral environment, the more tired we become inside.
Where is the spark, where is the optimism? Where is the colour that brings us joy? Colour shapes mood, influencing how we feel.
So, rather than making white your preferred colour of 2026, why not opt for WGSN’s Colour of 2026 Transformative Teal, which I think is a much better option.
WGSN and Coloro Transformative Teal
Teal is one of my favourite colours; it’s not only beautiful and calming, but also a universal colour (meaning there is a version of teal in every single colour palette). It also harmonises really well with so many different colours. You can wear teal with red, pink, purple, blue, orange, yellow, brown, white, navy, black, and grey. What’s not to love? It’s super versatile.
WGSN (a leading fashion forecasting company) describes it as a resonating colour for a period of change and redirection, a fusion of blue and green that recognises the diversity of nature and an earth-first mindset, building resilience in the face of complex change.
Teal comes in both lighter and darker shades.
Teal works excellently with fuchsia.
And guess what, Transformative Teal works with Cloud Dancer, you can wear them both together if you choose.
And I love mixing it with turquoise, the universal blue.
So don’t make white your base; instead, start playing with teal, as it’s a colour with so many possibilities for increasing the number of outfits in your wardrobe.
