Pantone may have designated periwinkle to be the color of 2022, but the fashion houses seem to be thinking otherwise. But when the world finally started to wake up after two years of being comatose, everybody wanted to go bold, to embrace the fun, to feel alive—they decided to go fuchsia.
Fuchsia Pink—de Facto Color of 2022
The hints had started dropping when designers such as Michael Kors, Caroline Herrera, Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, and Christian Cowan first experimented with this shade in their Fall/Winter collections at the New York Fashion Week 2022.
Hints of Fuchsia at NYFW 2022. Image courtesy: Vogue
After the NYFW, it was first Weinsanto’s Murder in Paris collection—the women’s wear Fall/Winter 2022 collection at the Paris Fashion Week that foreshadowed the shade becoming a trend.
Weinstano's Murder in Paris collection at Paris Fashion Week 2022. Image courtesy: Vogue
But it was Valentino’s Pink PP collection and its bright and bold pink worldview that brought the shade to the forefront. “An escape from realism” is what the creative director of Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli, called the collection.
Valentino's Pink PP Collection at PFW 2022. Image Courtesy: Vogue
Pink Taking Over the Red Carpets
It was not just the runaways that were colored pink—the red carpets across all award functions, be it the Critics Choice Awards, Grammys, or the Academy Awards were lit with bright shades of fuchsia with the crème de la crème donning their best pink ensembles.
Fuchsia pink taking over the red carpet. Image courtesy: L'Officiel USA, Vanity Fair & ENews
The recently culminated 2022 Cannes Film Festival too followed suit and was awash with pink. Mega stars and influencers alike walked the red carpet in fuchsia and its subtle shades.
Fuchsia at Cannes 2022. Image courtesy: Pop Sugar & Vanity Fair
Even the royal fashion could not stay immune to the touch of Fuchsia. To mark the fourth day of the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubliee, the Duchess of Cambridge wore a raspberry-colored long-sleeved dress.
The Duchess of Cambridge at Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee celebration. Image courtesy: Vogue
Pink—the Navy Blue of India
Pink has seen many phases and connotations over the years worldwide—from being presented as a color for boys to being considered a symbol of femininity, from being worn by the royalty and popularized by the who’s who of every imaginable field to being used to construct entire cities, the color has been associated with a wide array of meanings.
For India, the color speaks of the vibrance, vibrance, elegance, power, and authority—everything that the color navy blue speaks of in the West, as was famously pointed out by Diana Vreeland, the then editor of Harper’s Bazaar, when she commented on the famous Vogue India shoot by the renowned photographer Norman Parkinson.
Stills from Norman Parkinson's iconic Vogue shoot. Image courtesy: Mae Cassidy
The presence of the color can be found across a multitude of domains—be it in the hues of Indian textiles, in techniques rooted in the Indian culture, or painted across the walls of entire cities.
Hints of hues of Fuchsia in India.
For the world, the color may come and go, but for India, it stays forever!
References:
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/g39466595/hot-pink-clothing-trend-2022/
https://elle.in/valentino-pink-colour/
https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/fuschia-color-pink-red-carpet-fashion-trend-grammys-oscars
https://www.vogue.com/article/kate-middleton-pageant-dress-royal-style-success
https://caravanmagazine.in/showcase/pink-navy-blue-india
https://textileswatches.typepad.com/textile_swatches/2012/02/pink-is-the-navy-blue-of-india.html
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/history-of-color-pink/index.html
Cover image courtesy: Mae Cassidy
