Friday, September 18, 2009

Nice Day For Color Research

[Grandmother Maple is leading the pack with a dusting of gold leaves]

It's Fashion Season! I almost lost track of the calendar, being up here in the woods. Most of the "ready-to-wear" offerings are too "couture" looking. This is not the stuff that most people wear most of the time. The colors, on the other hand... Those will be trickling down to fashion at every level, and it's good to see what's coming down the pipeline. Remember the blue sweater scene from "The Devil Wears Prada"? It is totally true.



I still have a fever and am way too sick to think, but thankfully color research requires no thought whatsoever. It's just mechanical repetition:
- look for the season's new color guides
- enter the colors into Palettes, converting Pantone values to CMYK if necessary.

[Color trend projection from Pantone]

[Color recommendations, stored for future use. Notice how slowly the trends change? Compare Pantone Spring 2009 with Spring 2010...]


[Playing mix and match with recommended colors from various sources]

After I've got a good handle on the colors, I go to Style.com and peruse the collections. It's interesting to see just how closely most designers stick to the color trends. I won't remember much of what I'm seeing with my mushy brain today, but I can always go back again later.

[A casual jacket from Malandrino. Image from Style.com]

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