It’s safe to say that Angela Baidoo has earned the title of fashion expert. As a trend consultant and senior strategist who has worked with brands as diverse as WGSN, UAL, The Impression, and Burberry, Baidoo certainly knows her stuff when it comes to analysing and discussing what will be big this year and which trends have fallen just a tad short. Nearly six months into 2024, we asked for her thoughts on Pantone’s Colour of the Year 2024: “Peach Fuzz”. Here, she takes a deep dive into the colour trend and ponders why peach, whether it has fulfilled its destiny as the Colour of the Year, and if not, why? Plus, she investigates the colours that have come to the fore instead and that fashion people are really wearing.
What Is the Colour of the Year 2024?
Every year at around the beginning of December, it has become a tradition for Pantone (which creates international colour standards used across fashion, beauty, interiors and architecture) to give one colour the coveted title of Colour of the Year.
In 2009, Mimosa was a warm yellow which signalled hope a year after the credit crunch, whilst in 2021 a timeless shade called Ultimate Grey reflected the need for reassurance after the uncertainty of 2020—a colour whose effects are still being felt today as the revival of tailoring aligns with a slow return for most of us to the office.
For 2024, it was announced that the Colour of the Year would be Peach Fuzz, or Pantone 13-1023, to give it its official name. There were many reasons for the choice, but one of the main drivers was that it would provide a soft landing for the chaos which still surrounds us in today’s climate. Hoping to instill a warm and fuzzy feeling, Peach Fuzz converges at a point where the digital world meets reality, especially as creators increasingly use AI to develop dreamy images of otherworldly places we would all love to escape to.
“Caring”, “Community” and “Cosiness” are words Pantone has associated with its 2024 colour choice, and they just so happen to be the emotional triggers which “Effortlessly bridge the youthful with the timeless,” according to Pantone’s Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman. So, even though it may have been considered a divisive choice at first, it may actually bridge the generation gap as a colour everyone from Boomers to Gen Z can get on board with.
Why Peach Fuzz?
As much as many different industries wait on Pantone’s yearly predictions, signs of the pastel peach hue were already emerging on the runways before it was announced as the colour of 2024. As early as last September’s S/S 24 shows (four months before the announcement), we saw Zimmermann’s high-waisted skirt, Tom Ford’s satin safari jacket and Alaïa‘s transparent PVC dress and trench coat co-ord pre-empt Peach Fuzz’s confirmation as Colour of the Year. Consider too that Lila Moss wore a confection of fluffy Fendi feathers for her Met Gala look in 2023—the ultimate endorsement for the incoming peach moment if ever there was one.
Whilst not the easiest shade to wear, it can also have a much edgier feel. Think less #grandmacore and more kink, as designers such as Pieter Muller at Alaïa and Simone Rocha as guest designer for Jean Paul Gaultier Couture used transparent rubber and horned corsetry to reimagine powerfully feminine silhouettes in the colour. It should also find its sweet (no pun intended) spot across the beauty market, as the warm undertones will work well as a new option for blushes and bronzers across a variety of skin tones.
So, Six Months in, Are We All Keen on Peach?
In many ways, we can say yes, as we actually saw pastel peach tones coming through in 2023, and when it was announced as the official colour for 2024, it made complete sense, as brands and designers were already testing it out in the market. Add to this the continued dominance of all things “girly”—think the coquette aesthetic, Somerset House’s major exhibition, Cute, the TikTok trend encouraging users to romanticise their life and bows everywhere—and Peach Fuzz is a colour that has met the moment.
But there is also the argument that despite being named Colour of the Year, it often takes a few years for a colour to truly become part of the culture. This may explain why WGSN has already predicted 2026’s Colour of the Year as Transformative Teal. And, fun fact: in 2022, the trend forecasting agency had earmarked Apricot Crush (sound familiar?) as its 2024 Colour of the Year, which explains why the shade had already started appearing across products as diverse as consumer tech and luxury handbags.
Diving deeper into the art of colour forecasting, a similar colour called Cantaloupe was called out as Colour of the Year for 2020 (by WGSN), which at the time was used to promote the idea of optimism and joy which was desperately needed. So, it would seem that Peach Fuzz is simply an extension of Cantaloupe, and instead of seeing it everywhere this year, expect a slow burn of adoption as consumers, designers and brands continue to get used to the shade.
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MAGDA BUTRYM
Appliquéd Midi Dress
Do We Really Need a Colour of the Year?
As much fun as it is to play Colour of the Year roulette every year, many consumers and industry experts are starting to question the responsibility of pushing a single colour option which will be in for 12 months and out the next, as it only adds to the ongoing pressure of “needing” to keep up with the crowd by having the latest version (read: colour) of a phone case, bag or dress style, for example.
An embrace of slow fashion and conscious consumerism (an alternative to “consumption”, which focuses on a lifestyle shift towards consuming less and buying better) means that consumers are turning towards building their personal style via shopping their existing wardrobes and reframing the idea of everyday luxury: a great-quality white T-shirt from Uniqlo, for example. Counterbalance that with a far more sped-up trend cycle (looking at you, TikTok), and the idea of a single colour dominating the whole year holds less weight.
What it does offer though, is a light-hearted way to make sense of the world, in the same way that “Mercury being in retrograde” explains away those late-night calls to the ex or travel chaos. A soft, fuzzy colour which we can all escape into at a time of unease and unrest makes sense, but it should be one you keep as part of your wardrobe for more than the assigned 12 months.
