Who determines the colour of the year?

For its 2022 colour of the year, global colour authority Pantone has for the first time created a brand new shade: Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri, a vibrant periwinkle blue with violet-red undertones.

This will certainly guide most of the trend followers that believe that Pantone is the real authority and that a new colour will change everything, but there are other options.

Data from Pinterest indicates that purple was its most-shopped colour this fall on the platform, so it also gives an idea of what will be trending in the next months. 

The London-based WGSN, which predicts trends in fashion, interior design and electronics, also revealed the selection for 2022: a rich pink with purple undertones called orchid flower.

Etsy, an American e-commerce platform has its own formula to predict the trending colour of 2022’s looking at the shopper's searches and predicts that it's going to be deep, calming emerald green.

Many American paint companies also pluck colours of the year from their catalogues to reflect an emerging mood in pigment. 

The media broadcast the choices, which hold for the next 12 months and magazines and design blogs show out products in the hues. But does this parade of colours serve anyone besides Pantone, the paint companies and other colour suppliers?

It's quite obvious that this colour of the year thing is nothing more than a marketing strategy, some companies say announcing a colour of the year is rooted in helping consumers narrow their choices in a world of thousands of colour options. 

Amid so many top colours picks to choose from, the colour of the year feels like an antiquated way for companies and brands to tell consumers what to buy. 

Colour it's a matter of personal taste and shouldn't be confined to one recommendation by one brand or company or it will all look the same.

At Wewood we have a selection of colours for our fabrics and leather that we like to think that is not dated and goes well with our ambition of timeless design.