Welcome to the New Year

And while we're on the subject of color my trendspotter friends - the Pantone color of the year Marsala -

Check out this very inspiring link to see Marsala interpreted in flowers -

 http://botanicalbrouhaha.com/?p=11653

Pantone Color of the Year looks good in the Pacific Northwest

 Thank you style gods that be, Pantone has selected their 2013 color of the year and it is  green!!!!  (Hello favorite all time color)...and not just any green, a deep rich, green with a lot of blue....a jewel tone..emerald they call it.  I say enough with this honeysuckle and tangerine (pantone's colors for the last two years).  We are not 14 and not all of us live in Miami.  Don't get me wrong, I love a pop of pink and tangerine first came to my attention as a trendsetting color when I saw John Derian wearing a pair of orange boiled wool pants at NYIGF.  (Seriously, the first time I met John Derian, before I knew who he was, and when he really was a small NYC manufacturer, he was wearing those pants and I remember thinking, "Now who is that unassuming guy over there in those fabulous pants - ?")...it's not that I don't think orange and pink (read tangerine and honeysuckle) have their place, it's just that manufacturers look at those Pantone predictions and start making everything in those colorways and, frankly, those colors don't really fly too well in the grey and moody Northwest.  So yeah to emerald!!!!

all images courtesy pantone

Pantone and the World of Standardization

About every 6 months or so, I announce to Becky my new favorite color.  For a long time it was green, green, green and really it still is green but, since I must strive to amuse Becky, I decide to mix it up every now and then.  And truthfully I'm not really refering to my 'favorite' color, I mean the one that has somehow caught my attention.  And so it was that I picked up a grey magic marker at a collage class with Jill Cardinal about two weeks ago and it's been all gray, all the time.  I just can't get enough of it.

It is the color of shadow.  And, of course, the color of our soon to be skies here in the Northwest. 

The color in my baby pictures, and of the silverware I eat with. "Yes Becky, gray is my new favorite color".

To which she replies, "You mean light black?". And  I am deeply amused.

Image courtesy Pantone.  As a complete aside, I have been fascinated to watch the rise of the concept and the brand of Pantone.  Before 1963 there was no Pantone color system.  (What did those brides who needed their flowers matched to the color of the bridesmaid's shoes do?) The color of the year has only been around since 1999.  And now you can even buy these.    And click here should you like to read a little about the history of Pantone. And when you are done, you can ponder how it is that the colors of the world can be reduced to a mere 2,058 solid colors.