Archroma, a leader in colour and specialty chemicals, who pioneered custom colour engineering in textile and fashion, has recently sponsored a seminar with founder of Design Seeds, Jessica Colaluca, during this year’s PrintSource New York exhibition.

The event focused on the use of Color Anthropology and how recent global political events, including the election of Donald Trump and the passing of Brexit, may alter the already established fashion industry colour palette for the upcoming season.

“Colour has long been a form of self-expression over the years,” said Ms Colaluca. "The US election of Donald Trump impacted the colours we are – and will be – wearing this upcoming season. While not in the literal sense of red, white and blue being patriotic, but the notion of Americana and how people want to relate to it was shaken.”

Change in aesthetic

In many ways, the “modern folk/hipster” aesthetic was born in reaction to "consumerism gone wild,” which made natural colours make sense the past three years, but with the volatility of politics, nationally and globally, it makes sense the aesthetic will evolve dramatically once again. Allowing for a feeling of empowerment, optimism, and self-expression.

Jessica Colaluca pointed to strong fashion trends like flannel shirts and red dad caps that have dominated the market, such as Modern Folk and Americana, starting to blur political lines of very different people with distinctly different ethos.

As early as the fourth quarter of 2016, colour anthropologists could see a fallout coming on this trend aesthetic in the hipster and early adopter segments, because the aesthetics cross over with people of different political and cultural beliefs, therefore separating themselves from a belief system they don't share.

Color Atlas system

To address the fast pace of these shifting colour trends, Ms Colaluca highly recommended that fashion designers and brands leverage tools like Archroma's Color Atlas system.

“The Color Atlas has beautiful modern colours that are constantly relevant,” said Ms Colaluca. “As a designer, this is critical due to a quickly shifting consumer. And, if it doesn't have the exact colour I need, I can request a custom standard to achieve exactly the shade or hue I am looking for.”

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