Pantone names its Color of the Year for 2026

Channel 3000 News/CNN ^ | December 4, 2025 | CNN Bitter LOSERS

[Diana in Wisconsin]

If you're in the Fashion Industry, Home Decor or any branch of Retail, this color choice by your 'betters' is important and drives your choices for inventory in the coming year. 'White' no matter how you dress it up is going to be a hard sell, I'm predicting.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Is ‘Cloud Dancer’ a relative of yours? ;)

[ClearCase_guy]

This seems racist.

[one guy in new jersey]

White is the new black.

[jmcenanly]

Looking at the modern color palette, The entire paint store inventory has been replaced by Cloud Dancer, Basic Black and Fifty Shades of Gray

[albie]

I’m a realtor and I employ an interior designer that helps sellers improve their home and up the equity. Gray was huge in 2000-2003 or so. Because people relate gray with Covid it’s now out. Soft whites with bright white trim is an easy sale I can assure you.

[pepsi_junkie]

The institute, which is considered a leading authority on color, forecasting trends and advising brands, described the shade as “a billowy, balanced white imbued with a feeling of serenity.”

Humans discern color from the "cones" in the eyes, and those are defined by X chromosomes. Women have two X chromosomes, men only one. As a result, women have more of them and are able to discern variations in shade much better than men.

This explains why I cannot see "billowy" or "balanced" or "serenity", so this just looks like white to me.

[lastchance]

I was always taught that strictly speaking white is not a color.

[Pollard]

I think I still have a PMS chart from being in the sign business. PMS = Pantone Matching System and is commonly used in print media and any major company with a logo generally uses Pantone color numbers.

[AppyPappy]

My daughter was an art major. I learned a lot about colors and fonts.

[Rinnwald]

And now, I will choose a motorcycle capturing the cultural zeitgeist of this year.

A 1975 Honda CB400F.

In Light Ruby Red.

Deal with it.

[PeterPrinciple]

Folks,

I dated a gal from home ec once. She asked me if I knew why emerald green was popular that year.

Being a dumb ag student, I said, “no, I don’t.”

She told me it was picked by a committee, dye makers got to work, and then the cloth makers got to work, the designers, marketing etc.

It was a fashion industry.

On reflection, I observed there are a lot of fashion industries.

GOVERNMENT IS ONE OF THEM

[Dr. Sivana]

Our data center just repainted all of the halls and public areas with off-white, replacing grey. I hate grey walls, and when we were house hunting last year that’s all we saw. White is much, much better. And easy to paint over if you have other ideas. (My wife painted our grey kitchen light green)

[PeterPrinciple]

We have a new committee with a new color. MAGA

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Shades of White are the biggest marketing scam going. Try painting walls in your house white. You’ll get told it needs to be “Cloud Dancer” white to be current and the price will double or triple.

[Frank Drebin]

"Had we gone for a white that was more optically bright, not only does it take away from the natural feeling and honesty and authenticity that we’re looking for … it almost speaks to sterility and isolationism, because it’s cold,” she said."

You can smell the pretentious bull**** through the damned monitor...which is sitting behind a 15 foot think steel wall...on the moon.

[PfromHoGro]

It’s all colors. How diverse!

[GOPJ]

This could be a great color to help sellers...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

When I was flipping houses in the 90’s, I painted everything with a shade called ‘Milkweed’ from Hallman-Lindsay paints.

And, you are correct. A soft white/cream was always a good choice.

I hated the gray-everything years. Ugh!

[al_c]