This evening I was shopping for some warm winter things and noticed racks of cream, grey and black clothing (with many showcasing this past fall’s trend of “pleather” accents). Cute, but totally expected, and nothing really caught my eye. Until I spotted a knit skirt with short zippers sewn up both sides. The zippers were not especially remarkable but the color sure was.
It was a blue, a bright blue a few clicks short of “electric” blue. The skirt livened up garment selection in the best possible way, and it was in that moment that I realized, “A-ha! So it begins…the roll-out of Pantone’s Dazzling Blue” (FYI I don’t really talk that formally in my head..it is much more garbled and swear-y).
Dazzling Blue is a little bolder than a regular jewel-tone (sapphire) blue but still totally wearable, in fact, wearable like a neutral alongside the blacks and grays (that I will always love).
According to Pantone.com, Dazzling Blue is also the color we have become comfortable with seeing (multiple times a day if most of us are being honest with ourselves) on Facebook. Sometimes the blue of Facebook is referred to as “Social Butterfly Blue” and Dazzling Blue comes pretty close which = a “like” in my book.
When I got home, I got my mail and was flipping through a magazine when I saw this ad for Great Lash mascara — the iconic #1 selling brand of mascara in the familiar pink and green container. Wait, what? Great Lash now comes in bright blue? Yep. And so it begins…we will start seeing it everywhere!
Goodbye, my beloved Emerald (a.k.a Pantene Color of the Year 2013), and hello to you Dazzling Blue; you have some mighty big shoes to fill but I think you can do it.
Update: A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to Dazzling Blue as Pantone’s 2014 Color of the Year. Dazzling Blue is, in fact, a top color for Pantone’s “Spring 2014 Fashion Color Report.” Little Village regrets this error.
