Prepare yourself, 2018 will be a purple haze.
Each year the colour authorities at Pantone employ a team of people with a single mission to analyse the trends in food, cosmetics, clothes, homewares, cars… you name it. At the end of each year they meet, discuss, argue and eventually agree on the single shade they think will sum up the year ahead. 2018’s colour of the year has been declared as ultra violet. Galactic, royal and the symbol of Prince, expect to see this enigmatic hue everywhere from January.
Though the colour experts may like to claim this prediction, fashion trend forecasters have been calling lilac as the shade of next spring since September. The catwalks of Gucci, Rochas, Loewe and Victoria Beckham were awash with lilac and mauve. Over at Fenty Beauty and Lime Crime, lilac lippy has become a mainstay in their collections. And, earlier this month Kim Kardashian teased a new highlighter with an eerily similar moniker, Ultra Light Beams.
Historically speaking, ultra violet has been associated with the spiritual and mystical – think amethyst crystals. This might explain why artists like Frank Lloyd Wright, Bowie, Hendrix and Prince have been drawn to its unique blue-based shade. Pantone explains:”Complex and contemplative, ultra violet suggests the mysteries of the cosmos, the intrigue of what lies ahead and the discoveries beyond where we are now. The vast and limitless night sky is symbolic of what is possible and continues to inspire the desire to pursue a world beyond our own.”
To shop the best in ultra violet, scroll through the gallery below: