If you aren't familiar with the geniuses at Pantone, you had better pay them a visit! Pantone is the sole leader in color trend reporting through out the entire world. Simply stated, everything from the color of your credit card, to interior decorations, to the shade of sandblast in your jeans is determined by Pantone. Although the color theorists change from season to season, they always give the lowdown on what’s going to look good for the upcoming season. With spring comes the promise of new beginnings and I know for sure that I am going to begin my spring wardrobe shopping tonight!

   Although we always rag on The Gap and their obsession with neutrals, believe it or not, neutrals are hotta hotta for the spring… HOWEVER they must be delicately paired with the colors of a fresh spring bouquet; corals, purples and yellows are essential to the spring wardrobe not only for the ladies, but for guys as well! If you thought it took a real man to wear pink (real man was actually soon replaced with emo boy, but you know what I mean) just wait until you see what kind of macho body builder type men are rocking coral Speedos on Spring Break this year!

   Although it sounds like an easy job, it’s not!  “Most often, colors are not completely reinvented each season”, says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director at the Pantone Color Institute. In fact, from my artistic training in color theory, I often find that colors are more or less translated in context and transformed from season to season. For instance, take a look at Opal Gray…looks a lot like a cool Frost Gray, which we all know was a mega hit for the winter this year, right? Gray usually doesn’t suggest springtime to most people, but when paired with a hue like Green Sheen and you’ve got an intense spring explosion of fresh leaves, or Hollyhock matched with Opal Gray creates one of the most unmistakable 80’s revival trends, which is “coincidentally” one of the year’s biggest phenomenons! Coincidence…or Pantone??

   The best part of the Pantone Color Trend Forecast is the crazy and innovative yet sophisticated names they come up with for the colors they make, check out Tarragon, a modern elegant spring mixed green that resembles the inside of a fresh cut tulip stem. Other colors include Strawberry Ice which I predict will be the IT color for lip gloss this season, Golden Apricot which just conveys the scent of a fragrant and fruity candle tickling the inside of my nose after I’ve completed my compulsive spring cleaning, and Café Crème which reminds me of a large dollop of steamed milk atop a double espresso caramel latte after a morning walk through the park with my dog.

You can clearly see all these colors in our new spring clothing lines that arrive daily. One shirt sticks out to me in particular, the Life and Death Skull Rose Tee. A perfect example of Pantone at its best, in my opinion! Look how the typically unmanly colors of Hollyhock and Silver Peony form skulls and flowers that peek through the always trendy color of black! For the ladies, a great example of Pantone perfection is the Grail Dead Tree Top, again infused with Hollyhock and accented with some of that delicious Strawberry Ice, that eventually breaks down into variations on Silver Peony, I love it!

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