Pantone unveils 175 new shades

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 6/9/2011 4:01:04 PM

For the first time in eight years, color specialist and source Pantone LLC has amped up its Pantone Fashion + Home color system by adding 175 new colors, bringing the total to 2,100 shades.

Not since 2003 has Pantone, an X-Rite company, added new hues to its color system.

"People have been clamoring for new color," said Laurie Pressman, Pantone's VP of fashion, home and interiors.

Its latest additions "reflect today's global color influences across fashion, home furnishings and interior design [and] enrich the current palette and focus on areas of significant market importance and color trend movement."

"What is key here is it is not just picking colors that are trend-right," Pressman explained. "The key is that these colors are technically achievable and reproducible in the real world for all of the markets we serve - from fashion and home furnishings to interior and industrial design. Someone really needs to be able to take our colors and make them a reality."

The 175 new colors are permanent additions to the Pantone Fashion + Home Color System, and all color families were expanded to include: a broader range of nuanced neutrals and mid-tones; an increased number of vibrant brights; many complex hues with greater depth and intensity; more subdued and smoky variations of popular colors.

Vouching for the expanded spectrum is artist and designer Jonathan Adler.

"One would think that it would be impossible for Pantone to best themselves, but indeed they have," Adler said. "I didn't imagine that there were 175 more colors in the world, but Pantone managed to find them, number them and add them to their already legendary assortments."