Category Archives: fashion

Colour of the Year :(

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It’s that time of year again. No – not Christmas. It’s that time when we get announcements about colour of the year. Pantone – the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world – when it comes to such matters has announced that the colour of 2022 is periwinkle.

Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot get excited by the colour of the year. To be fair, it’s not just plucked from nowhere. Colour of the year, like colour forecasting, is the result of a process that links colour to the cultural trends and values of our time – the zeitgeist, if you will. However, there are two reasons why I can’t get excited.

The first is that it is so trite. Colour forecasting is a little better. But just because Pantone have announced this insipid violet colour is the colour of the year, I am not going to be changing my purchasing habits. I won’t be buying purple trousers, a purple volvo or decorating my house in periwinkle any time soon. It seems to me that colour of the year is just a publicity stunt, a marketing device.

The second is that in terms of colour forecasting generally I fall into the camp of people that believe that it does more harm than good. If we take the textile and apparel industry, as an example, our consumption behaviour is simply unsustainable. As noted in fastcompany, our obsession with colour trends is killing the planet.

To be fair, there is another side of the argument. Those on that side would argue that colour forecasting helps companies to produce products in colours that people want and that reduces waste. However, I just don’t buy it. There is scant evidence that colour forecasting ‘works’ at all and the relentless pushing of the idea that we have to keep buying new stuff to keep up with colour trends is harmful in my opinion. Instead of obsessing with colour of the year we should be buying things in colours that we like. We don’t need people to tell us what is trendy. Just buy what you like and stick with it.

Does red make us more attractive?

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A number of studies have concluded that wearing the colour red make us seem more attractive to other people. However, perhaps surprisingly, this is still an effect that is unclear. Although many studies have reported the effect, others have not found it.

Today I was reading a paper by Lehmann, Elliot and Calin-Jageman who conducted a meta-analysis of published work on this topic in 2018. They analysed a large number of studies to try to come to a definitive conclusion. Overall they found a small but statistically significant effect when men were rating women. The effect was much smaller for women rating men.

Interestingly, the authors could not agree on the conclusions and presented two concluding remarks in the paper. The first and third author concluded that the effect of red on attraction was small, potentially nonexistent. However, the second author concluded that there was a small but reliable effect for both men rating women and women rating men.

This reminds me a little of the work on the effect of colour on blood pressure and heart rate where, again, the literature show contrasting results. In this area I have concluded that there might be an effect but that, if there is, it is probably very small. Measuring very small effects can be difficult because of the problem of needing large sample sizes.

Virtual Fashion – the future’s not what it used to be

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Our current consumption of textiles is not sustainable. Perhaps one solution is better design of clothes to allow easier disassembly which could avoid discarded garments ending up in landfill. According to The Australasian Circular Textile Association 90% of textile waste ends up in landfill which is a shocking statistic. Or perhaps there will be a societal change leading to less emphasis on fast fashion. These are issues that we are exploring at the University of Leeds in our Future Fashion Factory. The Future Fashion Factory is a £5.4 million R&D partnership (led by the University of Leeds but including Huddersfield University and Royal College for Art) exploring and developing new digital and advanced textile technologies to boost the design of high-value creative products. The idea of leasing clothes rather than buying them is also gaining traction. Celebrities have long leased evening wear for red-carpet events. But could leasing become more mainstream?

Maybe the future of fashion is virtual. Perhaps in the future (in the near future actually) we will be able to change our clothes as easily as we change our backgrounds when taking part in video calls. Fashion is important and fulfils a desire that people have to express themselves. But perhaps people will increasingly use virtual environments to express themselves. Fortnite has already hosted several fashion shows and fashion is already an essential component of the hugely successful online game. For our children – the future consumers of this world – buying a virtual garment is as natural as buying a physical garment (and possibly more rewarding). The world of digital fashion was recently discussed in an interesting article in The Guardian by their fashion editor Hannah Marriott.

Our regular team on the Over The Rainbow colour podcast discussed these issues with Caroline Hemingray who leads the MA Fashion Marketing at the University of Leeds. You can listen to the podcast here – https://swestland.podbean.com/

Colour in Fashion

design, fashion, news, podcast, professional, psychology,

For our sixth episode of our colour podcast we chatted about colour in fashion covering colour forecasting and the future of fashion. We brought in a guest, Caroline Hemingray, who leads the MA in Fashion Marketing at the University of Leeds. It’s mainly for fun – and as an educational resource – but I hope you find it interesting. You can see the podcast here.