Pantone’s Color of the Year Is Proof We’ve Reached Peak Palm Obsession

Today, paint enthusiast and foreteller of fashion trends Pantone unveiled its Color of the Year for 2017. And the winner is (drumroll, please) Greenery. Pantone characterizes Rose Quartz and Serenity’s successor as “a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew.” It’s the color of your morning matcha latte. That palm you bought as a backdrop for your #OOTD mirror selfies. Evil Kermit. This Gucci suit.

Greenery at Gucci Spring 2017; Image: Gucci

In a press release announcing the news, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute (and, in another life, Dalai Lama) Leatrice Eiseman stated that, “Greenery bursts forth in 2017 to provide us with the hope we collectively yearn for amid a complex social and political landscape. Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate, revitalize and unite, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another and a larger purpose.” That’s a lot of responsibility for one pigment, but who can turn down a cure for our election-induced ennui?

Greenery at Kenzo Spring 2017; Image: Kenzo

“Greenery is nature’s neutral,” holds the cult of Pantone. While, in our minds, the Spring 2017 runways evoked citrus fruits more often than they did avocados, Pantone begs to differ. After all, Balenciaga, Pucci, Sies Marjan, Michael Kors, Kenzo and Zac Posen all made clothes in the leafy shade.

The color-centric company arrived at its decision based on careful observation and trend analysis. Its experts looked to “the entertainment industry and films in production, traveling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations, as well as new lifestyles, playstyles and socio-economic conditions” for inspiration and found Greenery to be the aesthetic solution to our overall unease. Plus, it “plays down the ruddiness of our skin and adds a punch of color to our hair, lips, eyes and nails.” Greenery: first Kylie, now Pantone-approved.

A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on


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