What Is the Perfect Color Worth? | Hacker News Reader

What Is the Perfect Color Worth?

nytimes.com

37 pointsdpflan15 comments

Despite how ridiculous this sounds it is actually very strategic. The industry has appointed Pantone as a sort of random number generator that will pick a color for next year. The only requirement for this color is that it is different from this year’s color. Pantone is the coordinating mechanism by which all of the manufacturers start making products in this color to manufacture a trend, and messaging through various media that last year’s color is “over” and you should be ashamed to be seen in it.

Somewhat surprisingly this has only been going on for about 20 years. Given that fashion has done its very best to make people turn over their wardrobe 4 times a year for a very long time, I'm surprised there wasn't more coordination in this area.

Screw this monumental waste that is "fashion clothing".

I'm still using a polo shirt from 20 years ago - a very nice quality, navy blue Allaire one. I replace my clothing as it breaks.

I'm going to hypothesize you're not a young lady engaged in elaborate status games.

It’s certainly a status game (“of course, I don’t have a Facebook account”...), just a weird one.

Probably should have said I (obviously) have newer clothing as well, and that the polo shirt was my oldest piece (it's really good quality). Point is I don't throw stuff out just because it's old, if it's still in decent nick.

When I do buy clothes, or anything, I try to get stuff that will last. My Rotel hifi is 20 years old and still ticking.

There's tonnes of resources to be found on the wasteful impact of the clothing industry - the whole head game of making people think they can't use clothes just because it's "slightly old" is a direct contributor to that. And that's not even touching on issues such as sweatshops.

Touché.

> messaging through various media that last year’s color is “over” and you should be ashamed to be seen in it.

Pantone is a tastemaker, for sure, but it's relationship with the rest of the industry isn't entirely one-way. I don't feel like the market ever really cared for 2015's Marsala, but something close to 2009's Mimosa was flying off Target's shelves for years after 2009.

It's 'The Devil Wears Prada' with a splash of 'Wag the Dog'.

> Last spring, a dozen people filtered into a sunny, whitewashed conference room on the seventh floor of the Royal College of Art, overlooking London’s Hyde Park.

Is there a writing version of tvtropes? I feel like I've read this intro a dozen times before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_style

"soft lead"