The New Fall Palette
With fashion week winding up in New York, the tones of the fall fashion season seem clear. Black and brown continue as the foundation of a dark palette, enlivened by jewel tones like red, teal, green and purple that work with either black or brown. This may indicate a move back to saturated clear gemstone colors from the pale, soft muted tones that currently dominate jewelry sales. Given the influence of sixties style and mod shapes this season, that isn’t a surprise. Pantone has created a list of the ten top colors used in fall collections which is headed by chili pepper red, which appeared in 16.7 percent of the season’s collections. The report cites fashion’s “spicy side” this season. (For an indication of what that might mean for jewelry, see the Richard Palermo design for Color Craft below.) The color of red Pantone has selected is not exactly ruby red, it’s more of an orangey carnelian red. That may explain reports just coming in of brisk sales of orange gemstones in Tucson. At recent shows, warm tones of orange to brown to gold seemed to indicate a warming trend and the return to dominance of yellow gold. As we featured in the February issue, once-forgotten brown is now becoming a gem staple. The other important color story for the year, and sure to be very important this spring and summer, is blue and green, always a winner in gemstone jewelry sales thanks to the affordable and attractive gemstone options.
