Pantone has chosen its 2026 Color of the Year, and depending on how you look at it, it could be colorless — or the reflection of every color.
The "color?" White. Cloud Dancer (PANTONE 11-4201) to be more exact. The company described it as "a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection" in an announcement Thursday.
Every year since 1999, Pantone, widely considered the world's authority on color, has selected a shade it projects will represent and define the year ahead — a prediction of the upcoming year's global mood and culture. The chosen color sits at the forefront of Pantone's brand identity for the year, appearing in everything from commercials and Pantone-branded merchandise, to external brand and artist collaborations.
In 2026, Cloud Dancer and its Pantone trademark will appear on everything from Motorola smartphones and Command strips to Post-it Notes, Joybird furniture, and even Play-doh. Yes, these products are more or less just white. But Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, asserts that the chosen color "reflects what people are looking for."
Pantone's Color of the Year largely acts as a global forecast — what consumers will buy, wear, or gravitate towards — but it can also act as a nod to certain existing trends in the fashion, design, and lifestyle industries. Once the color is announced, it "becomes a kind of celebrity within the industry," as host Cardiff Garcia noted in a 2020 episode of Planet Money, quoting University of Leeds Professor Regina Blaszczyk.
Hues similar to Cloud Dancer already appear within the celebrity aesthetic of quiet luxury — the trend of expensive-though-understated and logo-free neutrals popularized a couple years ago through cultural moments like Sofia Richie's wedding and Gwyneth Paltrow's high-profile civil trial.
2026 marks the first year that Pantone has chosen a shade of white for Color of the Year. However, it's not the first time the company has selected a color to encourage tranquility and alleviate stress.
Back in 2011, Pantone's Color of the Year was Honeysuckle, a reddish pink meant to "lift spirits and impart confidence to meet life's ongoing challenges," according to the company's official statement. The year before that, Pantone selected Turquoise to provide a "comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world." And just two years ago in 2024, Peach Fuzz was Pantone's pick to express a desire to "nurture ourselves and others."
Pressman suggests that Cloud Dancer promises to inspire a rebirth of sorts: "Similar to a blank canvas, Cloud Dancer signifies our desire for a fresh start," she wrote on the company's launch page. "An airy white hue, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer opens up space for creativity, allowing our imagination to drift so that new insights and bold ideas can emerge and take shape."
Reactions on social media to the Cloud Dancer choice have been mixed, with comments on Pantone's Instagram announcement post ranging from interested to outraged.
"It looks like Pantone is in their bridal era," wrote the official David's Bridal account.
"Choosing the color white during this social and political climate really says something…" wrote Jason Rhee, a designer and creative at the Rheefined Company.
"The color of the year being colorless is a recession indicator," wrote one Instagram user @shar_fierce, while another user, @j_severova, declared that the choice "feels like a microaggression to me, I just can't prove it yet."
The exact process for how color experts at Pantone choose each Color of the Year is largely a well-kept secret, but one rare glimpse into Pantone meetings was described in a 2012 Slate article as "a high-concept show-and-tell fused with a cultural anthropology seminar."
Pressman said in a 2023 interview on Pantone's website that there is no one meeting to decide on a color each year. Rather, members of the Pantone Color Institute, who come from a wide range of backgrounds, communicate throughout the year as they analyze and forecast design and color trends.
"It's important to remember that the goal of the program isn't to push a certain color, although we do see that colors named as Pantone Color of the Year increase in popularity," she insists. "The goal of the program is to help companies and consumers better understand the power color can have."
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