year's Color of the Year was a shade of pink called Honeysuckle.)
The specific color Pantone has chosen is called 'tangerine tango' -- a brilliant shade of reddish orange that evokes a fireball as much as fruit.
It was added to Pantone's index of 2,100 colors after the company asked retailers and designers what colors they were seeking out. A plethora of orange requests came back. That led to the Sephora line, which is a partnership dubbed 'Sephora + Pantone Universe.'
Orange offers ancillary advantages to manufacturers and retailers. It makes products stand out on cluttered store shelves. 'If you've got a bunch of products on a shelf, it can't hurt to have an orange one,' says Leatrice Eiseman, a color expert who works with Pantone.
Paint and chemical manufacturer Akzo Nobel NV chose a juicy red called 'terra cotta rose' as its 'Color of the Year' at a gathering in September. The company says it's a 'powerful mood modifier, reflecting passion, power and festivity.' Akzo Nobel's color experts say the shade reflects that the world is 'progressing into something more confident and robust' as we head into 2012.
Cheery. Festive. These colorists are focusing on orange -- and similarly bright colors such as pink and chartreuse -- for qualities seen as antidotes to economic woes and a general climate of worry.
This renaissance for orange has been a long time coming. The color was popular in the 1920s, and again in the 1960s, with a lesser renaissance in the '80s.
Those eras belie the argument made by Pantone and others that orange is a color for cheering up people during down economies. In fact, those were heady economic periods later followed by devastating crashes.
But just a few years ago, orange was 'at the bottom of the totem pole,' says Ms. Eiseman. It began to ascend in popularity just in the past year or two, after appearing on the spring runways of
influential designers like Marc Jacobs and Jil Sander's Raf Simons in September 2010.
Orange is also a popular color in Asia -- a major target market for global manufacturers. Many Buddhist monks wear orange robes, notes Danish consumer marketing analyst Martin Lindstrom, adding, 'I think we're going to see a big increase in colors that are popular in Asia.'
Orange does carry certain risks. Not only is it loud, but it could become the avocado of 2012 -- popular for a moment, but considered hideous for years after. Remember all the avocado-green appliances of the 1970s? They're so redolent of that era that they spent years serving as comic relief in period TV shows.
Susan Stone, owner of the Savannah boutique in Santa Monica, Calif., says she bought orange accents gingerly for fall and next spring. She has sold a Celine shopper bag in bright orange, for roughly $2,000. And she just received an order of orange Stella McCartney knitted sweaters. But a jacket would be 'too much of a statement,' she says.
'Our thing is to provide quality fashions that will last a long time,' she notes. 'Orange might not be around' for long.
Interest in orange waxes and wanes more dramatically than for more soothing blues and greens. The color sneaked into Fall 2011 fashion collections, and the trickle turned to a downpour for Spring 2012. Tommy Hilfiger, Jill Stuart, and Nanette Lepore used orange in their collections -- often creating entire orange outfits.
Ms. Lepore was so set on getting a brilliant orange that she changed fabrics to a high-grade polyester because the
textile would absorb more orange dye.
'There were a lot of cottons that got thrown out because they couldn't get the saturation of the dye,' she says.
Leslee Shupe, owner of the Serenella boutique in Boston, says she went whole hog for orange for fall and spring with a store full of looks from Thakoon, Rochas, Bottega Veneta, Tomas Maier and Sophie Theallet. 'Orange can be very flattering,' she says. 'It's a warm color.'
Ms. Shupe also bought bright Hawaiian prints from Joseph Altuzarra and No. 21. 'I think it's good for business,' she says.
2012年时尚界将刮起橙色风橙
色。
喜欢也好，讨厌也好，奔放的橙色都将是明年最热的色彩之一。所以，做好护眼措施，准备迎接炫目的橙色吧，你会看到橙色的餐具、家具、大衣、连衣裙、鞋子、手袋，甚至橙色眼线。
丝芙兰(Sephora)即将推出含橙色眼妆的限量版春季化妆品系列──其中包括用羽毛制成的橙色假睫毛。许多设计领域都出现了橙色风潮的回归：犹他州帕克城(Park City)的峡谷度假村(Canyons Resort)最近安装了一部叫Bubble Express的豪华滑雪缆车，配有加热座椅，颜色是亮眼的橙色。
峡谷度假村所属的Talisker Mountain Inc.公司的首席营销长琳达?沃伦(Linda Warren)说，橙色给人以“快乐的联想”，这是选择橙色的部分原因。
鉴于客户对橙色系色卡的需求大幅上升，爱色丽(X-Rite Inc.)旗下专业色彩子公司彩通(Pantone)宣布，将把橙色作为彩通2012年度代表色（去年的年度代表色是忍冬色，属于粉色系）。
彩通选择的这种色彩叫“蜜橘探戈”(tangerine tango)──是一种明亮的红调橙色，让人联想到火球和水果。
在征询了零售商和设计师对色彩的需求后，彩通将“蜜橘探戈”加入该公司包含2,100种色彩的颜色索引。橙色热潮的回归促使丝芙兰与彩通联手推出了名为“丝芙兰+彩通世界”(Sephora + Pantone Universe)的橙色系列化妆品。
橙色能助生产商和零售商一臂之力，使摆放在拥挤货架上的产品更加醒目。为彩通担任顾问的色彩专家莱丽斯?艾斯曼(Leatrice Eiseman)说，“如果货架上有一堆商品，摆放一个橙色的商品肯定没错。”
涂料和化学品生产商阿克苏诺贝尔(Akzo Nobel NV)在9月份举行的会议上将一种叫“红陶玫瑰”(terra cotta rose)的红润色彩定为“年度代表色”。该公司称，这种颜色是“强有力的情绪调节剂，体现出激情、力量和欢乐。”阿克苏诺贝尔的色彩专家说，这种颜色反映出，进入2012年后世界将“变得更自信、更强大。”
活泼。快乐。这些色彩专家们把目光投向橙色以及粉色、黄绿色等明亮的色彩，因为这些色彩所具有的特质能驱散经济阴霾以及普遍的担忧气氛。
以往曾出现过几次橙色的回归。二十世纪二十年代和六十年代都流行过橙色，二十世纪八十年代又再度掀起橙色流行风，不过规模较小。
彩通及其他方面人士认为，橙色是经济低落时让人振奋的颜色，但上述橙色流行期的特征并不符合这种说法。事实上，这些都是经济迅猛增长，随后又急转直下的时期。
艾斯曼说，就在几年前，橙色还“处于图腾柱的底部。”橙色是从一两年前开始流行起来的，马克?雅各布(Marc Jacobs)和吉尔?桑达(Jil Sander)的拉夫?西蒙(Raf Simons)等知名设计师在2010年9月份举行的春季时装秀中使用了橙色，此后橙色人气开始升温。
在全球生产商的主要目标市场亚洲，橙色也是一种流行色。丹麦消费品营销分析师马丁?林德斯特伦(Martin Lindstrom)说，许多和尚穿橙色袍子。他还说，“我认为亚洲的流行色将大幅增加。”
橙色确实有一定风险。橙色不仅张扬，而且有可能成为2012版鳄梨色──风行一时，但在此后多年里却被认为很雷人。还记得二十世纪七十年代美国那些鳄梨绿的家用电器吗？它们带着浓郁的时代特征，在很多年里一直出现在历史题材电视剧的搞笑场景中。