September 29, 2025
One of my favorite posts! Although it takes HOURS to find these things – but if you’re going to test-drive a new accent color, it’s worth it to get things that work together.
This year’s colors are very interesting – I’ve never seen so many shades of red and pink…
But let’s start with this color that looks almost yellow on the Pantone website, but if you follow their digital guidelines, it’s actually this moss green. Hmm…
Finding this color was easiest if I searched for moss or lime. Acacia did NOT register, and I’m not surprised.
Sunlit olive tee – J.Crew; earrings – Kendra Scott; satin sleeveless top – Banana Republic; ribbon scarf – Kueen; small handbag – Pinko; ballet flats – Vicenza
I quite like Alexandrite, although I can’t help but feel that half of the things should be this teal green, and the other half the purple color that Alexandrite turns when it’s under artificial light. Or is it the other way around?
This color was most easily found by searching for teal…
Sea green top – L.L.Bean; earrings – Oradina; dusty teal v-neck – J.Jill; scarf – Alie Street London; bag – Laura Di Maggio; powder teal sneakers – Adidas
Our next color looks as if it came from other year, if not another decade! But it’s a really pretty shade of blue, which would look great with ivory or white…
Searching for this, I used either royal blue or cobalt blue as my search term.
Zipped fleece top – Lands’ End; earrings – Anthropologie; cotton sweater – Lands’ End; scarf – Jessie Zhao New York; bracelet – Yaa Yaa London; shoulder bag – Luis Steven
Orange? This and the Acacia stick out like a pair of sore thumbs, but I think you can make the case that including these colors gives a range of possibilities for shoppers…
Sweater – Americandreams; earrings – SOKO; tee shirt – Michaels; ribbon scarf – Valentino Garavani; phone bag – Radley London; socks – UGG
I feel like they name a color “something lava” every few years. It’s not as if they can come up with truly new colors, of course…
Plaid top – L.L.Bean; earrings – J.Crew; dark clay shirt – Alex Mill; scarf – Weekend Max Mara; bag – Calvin Klein; ballet flats – Sam Edelman
What’s not to love about Dusty Rose? With navy, or grey, or brown… mmm…
Cashmere sweater – Nordstrom; “lilac” earrings – Anthropologie; tee shirt – J.Crew; neckerchief – Lauren Ralph Lauren; bag – Anthropologie; loafers – Talbots
Pantone covered all of their bases for pink this year! If you like pink, you should be able to find things to appeal by next spring at the latest…
Twill plaid shirt – L.L.Bean; pink tourmaline earrings – Latelita; strawberry pink cashmere sweater – Loop Cashmere; scarf – Echo; bag – MZ Wallace; sneakers – Propet
Ah, here’s my favorite! Amaranth is pretty close to Eileen Fisher’s “cassis,” of which I own a handful of pieces, and a glorious scarf…
Fleece top – Lands’ End; earrings – Anthropologie; shirt – & Other Stories; scarf – Talbots; bag – Tumi; ballet flats – Talbots
Burnt Sienna is great – and it was relatively simple to find just by search for plain old red. Retailers generally keep color names simple!
Flannel shirt – Lands’ End; earrings – Talbots; striped shirt – Lands’ End; wool silk scarf – Elizabetta Salerno; scarlet bag – The Sak; flats – Tahari
This last color is lovely, but was VERY difficult to find. I searched for lilac, pink, and grey (seriously!) at different times. One must be persistent!
Fleece top – Zella; earrings – Way to Chic; tee shirt – Zella; scarf – Lamberty Munich x Katchmagic London; bag – Calvin Klein; oxfords – Linea Paolo
If I was looking for accent colors, I would have at least a couple of choices from this assortment. But I’m breaking in two new pairs of jeans – that’s my autumn purchase!
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we started with just three garments in charcoal grey, and then tried them out with 8 different accents. Some work better than others!
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I love the Pantone Colour Trend Report from New York and London. These colours are soft and muted which is great for me. I’d wear them all apart from Acacia and Musk Melon. The neutrals are interesting too – dark brown, dark blue, off white and several shades of green.
Please would you look at the London colours too for your UK followers as they are more mid-toned.
I bought that “Amaranth” fleece top and cannot wait to wear it! Also in Navy and I’m trying to decide if I can dress it up enough for work.
The Pantone colors never have names that fully embrace what the color is…they tend to go with creativity over accuracy of the color. That being said, I always enjoy watching the colors they choose, as a spectator might watch a sporting match. This season was overall a miss for me, unfortunately. There are a lot of cool undertones and muted shades here….and my best colors are vivid, with warm undertones.
My favorites are Lava Falls (which I’d simply call Brick Red) and Musk Melon (Coral Orange). My least favorite are Burnished Lilac (which looks like a dirty grey to me) and Dusty Rose (which looks like a dirty Millennial pink). The Acacia is interesting…I’d call it Peridot or lime…but, I’m far from a professional.
All in all, it’s a fun way to think about adding in a new accent color to a base wardrobe with a minimum of commitment.
These are fun posts each year. I agree that the descriptive terms leave a lot to be desired. They’re more creative than accurate, don’t you think? This year’s shades were mostly a miss for me. These are mainly muted shades with cool undertones. I tend to favor vivid shades with warm undertones. My two favorites were: Lava Falls (brick red) and Muskmelon (coral-orange) for this very reason. My two least favorites were Burnished Lilac (it just looks like a dirty gray to me, unfortunately) and Dusty Rose (same reason for disliking). I found the Acacia to be intriguing! But, I’d call it Peridot or even Acid Lime….a little of that would go a long way, but it’s a fun color to wear with black or navy.
Have a marvelous Monday, all!
Love the Lime and the Blue both of which I already have. The others are too muted/greyed for me as my best colours are bright,clear and cool. Very tempted by that blue bracelet £65 here in the uk so very reasonable. Just wish it was silver rather than gold.
Agree with Ellen about the too-dusty lilac. About ten years ago, there was a popular website that pointed me towards muted colours, so I headed to a store and enthusiastically scooped up everything dusty and muted. Reality check in the dressing room: most of it was SO toned down that I might as well have been wearing oatmeal beige (my worst colour). I went back out to the store and picked out a cheerful blue wrap sweater and a pink tank top, tried them on, and said “welcome back” to my reflection.
Muskmelon is one of my favorites. I wear it a lot during the spring and summer, so it was fun to see it in a sweater.
Most of these were a miss for me. Too muted and drab for accents. The Acacia which I agree is closer to peridot and that is what JCrew calls it! I would wear that and the blue is pretty but I prefer a more periwinkle which never seems to say ‘Oh this old thing’ although in large amounts even that eponymous tone is ‘trop’ I also wonder at laying out a large sum for an accent piece that may look sadly passé in a year or two…cashmere, leather bags, high end shoes. Those I do prefer to keep either in my neutrals or tried and true perennial accents. I am a case in point…laid out a large sum for golden yellow sneakers as I was trying to convert my winter black to navy and had picked up a few less $ accent pieces on Poshmark. Turns out that ‘golden yellow’ is not my best accent and I so so wished the money spent on those shoes had gone to a pair in black or navy. They are comfortable though but did not get any wear this year so they will be a donation and an $$ lesson learned. No they cannot be dyed…I inquired. Few of us have room to store items that might come back ‘on trend’ my advice is forget amassing a collection in a new, untried accent and purchase a few items from Poshmark or thrift or just stick to your tried and true.
Brilliant advice that I will heed. Thank you.
The blue is the only one I would wear. But the dusty sage and pink remind me so much of my mom would favored those
tones and was beautiful in them. So thank you for the morning smile!
I once wore jeans, but have drifted away from them to cotton chino style pants. I know I would greatly add to my wardrobe if I bought a pair or two of jeans. I just don’t like the feel. How do you break them in, Janice? Is there a brand that you favor?
Guess I’m the only one who likes the lilac shade! Ha ha!
Purples are my favourite colours, but I need to be careful with lilac as some shades look too “little-girly” on me (38yo but look about 16), and I find that lilac with a hint of grey takes it to that more elegant, sophisticated tone. I have a small crossbody-pouch bag from my favourite company in a similar shade, although it’s a good few years old, now, so needs to be found second-hand. Having said that, I’m not sure how that colour would look in a top beside my face.
Anyway, thank you for all the effort you’ve put into this post!
I love the marina, amaranth and lava. Definitely would buy something in marina and amaranth with my winter coloring. But I borrow from the soft summer shades on occasion. My only “hell no” is acacia.
Thank you for you for your diligent work. It’s always fun to see the new colours. I didn’t realize that there was a special selection for the UK. And yes, I’d love to see those colours too. Acacia is the one for me – I have the shoes!
“Oh goody the Pantone post” was my first thought when I saw the thumbnail. I love nearly all of these colors though I am not sure I could wear many of them close to my face. I guess that leaves me dreaming of shoes/handbags/jewelry in acacia, alexandrite, muskmelon and marina because a pop of color always goes with black or denim. I appreciate you providing search terms for the various colors.
Randomly this summer I matched my water bottle to my new iPhone cover, which gives me joy every time I grab them. Maybe water bottles in the pop of color wouldn’t go amiss (& reusable shopping bags). ;)
I love the water bottle idea. I have phone cover, kindle cover and coin purse all in my favorite reddish orange. Actually I do have an orange water bottle I keep in the car. Old school. Maybe I Weill look for an updated cool one.
Hmm. If these are going to be the colors in stores this year, I might give shopping a miss till 2027. lol. None of these will work for my skin tone. I would look sickly in them. The orange would be nice in a basket of flowers though.
If these colors show up well in stores, it’ll be a nice year for heroines who like to wear cool colors toned down with grey. Even the warm lime green and burgundy seem to have some grey/black mixed in to soften them. I am kind of in love with the color of the warm watermelon “tea rose” pink sweater that has nice saturation to it.
The gorgeous and whimsical Jessie Zhao jungle party scarf in the marina blue set is double sided with the same scene in shades of pink on the other side.
That “tea rose” is my favorite! difficult shade to find, but when I wear it, it magically looks like I wore blush & a lipstick… I need to hunt for that color again.
Ally, you raise some great questions about how to test out a new accent color for the majority of us who don’t have an unlimited budget. I recall Janice saying in a past post something to the effect that she recommends buying a high quality piece to test out a new color so that you don’t erroneously decide you don’t like the color when it’s really the specific item you don’t like. But I think I’m not alone in being leery of spending $$$ on an experiment!
My guess is that the best approach to testing a new color is not one-size-fits-all, but Ally’s recommendation to buy secondhand is a good one (and one I know Janice endorses as well based on prior posts). Fortunately, Pantone is not actually inventing new colors that never existed, so items in these colors are available in the secondhand market (though perhaps hard to find for some of the unusual ones).
Two other approaches I’ve used successfully for myself are:
(1) Buy a reasonably inexpensive T-shirt in the color (e.g. Lands End).
(2) Buy an inexpensive and/or secondhand scarf in the color (I have had great luck on ThredUp for scarves but also local thrift stores).
These purchases are less expensive and put the color next to your face. For t-shirts, the quality level differences seem to me to apply more to how durable the item is than how good it is initially.
Also if there is a particular style of shirt, sweater, shoe, etc., that you already like, I wonder whether testing a new color in that item would help minimize the “it’s really the item itself, not the color, that I dislike” factor.
Many of the items Janice has shared would only make sense for me financially if they were tried-and-true colors. But for heroines who already love any of these colors, it’s a good time to shop for nice pieces that they will use for years.
Sorry, nesting fail!
I love the colors this year! Well the four you put on the graphic (I can’t remember what pantone called them), but the burgundy, muted pink, berry and teal are my colors. So I am set! They go beautifully with my neutrals of denim, navy and black. I add pops of mustard and cognac brown in my accessories. Thanks Janice!
Janice, have you tried grok.com? I’ve recently been using it to improve my punctuation skills. I asked it, “What are color names clothing retailers use for Pantone’s new burnished lilac?” It came back with a list of general fashion retailers as well as specific stores and what they call it along with what sort of clothing they are offering. I asked for more retailers and got another similar list. Then I asked for a specific store, J. Crew. I got the response that they aren’t offering it yet, but they gave me a list of similarly colored items and what the color name is. If you haven’t tried this, I think you might like it.
What a great comment! Thank you Dawn.
I’m trying really hard to NOT use AI for anything – the water consumption of those data centers is going to prove to be a problem for a lot of places. I’d rather wait to use it once the effects of the technology are improved so as to not be so destructive. I’m weird about the environment!
love,
Janice
Agree. Due to residents’ protests that swayed City Councilors, Google just pulled out of a 400+ acre data center project here in Indy.
Yay!! More of us need to be concerned
Kudos to the Indy team, Debra. Stepping up to a civic resource-use decision is a lot of work, but so very important!
I don’t do pink, but I’ve got a lovely fragrance oil called tea rose – so now my silly brain wants the sweater! Odd the way those connections.work…
Hooray, Janice. Love to see this response in the world.
If you’re searching for things on any of the major search engines, just type -AI (aka “minus AI”) somewhere in your search terms, and you won’t get AI-generated results. I have no idea how much energy and water each search costs, but it’s not zero!
love
Janice
Recently my granddaughter and I were talking about colors and I said my fav is burnt Sienna. My dil about lost it! So funny. But I was excited when I saw the Pantone list. However, this color looks more like burgundy. I love what I remember from my oil painting days, the warm reddish orangish brown. Here’s another vote for warmer colors.
I’m sadly disappointed in this selection. The majority of the colors seem either dusty or muddy to me, neither of which suit my fair skin and dark hair. Like Janice, my favorite is Amaranth and I think I will take Sally’s advice to buy a tee in that color, maybe a touch brighter if possible. Marina is a lovely color, but I would look for something darker or brighter.
Mama Squirrel – Good to see you! I don’t think I’ve seen you post in a while? Or it’s been after I’m “done” for the day. I about got beaned in the head the other day by a nut falling from a tree and I looked up and here’s this little squirrel looking down at me! Onto the post. I always find it strange how the UK and US colors differ. The only two hard no’s for me in this list would be the rose and the lilac. Everything else might not be a favorite, but I could deal with it. Always love Jessie Zhou scarves. Thank you so much Janice –
Waving hello back to Sheila. I always read the posts and conversation, just don”t always have a comment.
This is a miss for me this year except for theMarina blue.
I like the four colors in the collage best.
I’d love to have the Pantone NY neutrals in a clothing capsule.
Glad you mentioned Eileen Fisher’s Cassis. Amaranth is what I’d call eggplant. That said, I wonder about Cassis because it always looks slightly brown to me. What does it look like in person?
Lava Falls reminds me of EF’s Wine. I really, really want a Wine jacket from EF but I missed the sale…and it is $398. Now of course I could amortize the cost, as I tend to keep clothes forever…Very tempting…!
Hope you are feeling better, Janice.
Don’t forget the eileenfisherrenew.com site – were they sell second-hand clothes. I’ve bought a LOT of things from there, and their descriptions and assessment of the quality of the garment are spot-on. It’s an excellent way to keep clothes out of landfills, and get wonderful clothes at a better price!
hugs,
Janice
While I appreciate the work Janice puts into finding items in the colors, this Pantone color selection is underwhelming for me. Colors are either too dark, too muted or simply unflattering for my coloring – fair and warm skintone, blond hair, aqua eyes. The only color I could wear is Muskmelon, possibly Marina and Tea Rose. Not that I need more clothes…and I know a future palette will feature colors that do work for me, then I’ll snap up items at that time.
While I appreciate the work Janice puts into finding items in the colors, this Pantone color selection is underwhelming for me. Colors are either too dark, too muted or simply unflattering for my coloring – fair and warm skintone, blond hair, aqua eyes. The only color I could wear is Muskmelon, possibly Marina and Tea Rose. Not that I need more clothes…and I know a future palette will feature colors that do work for me, then I’ll snap up items at that time.
Ugh. These are kind of depressing, and the only one I could (maybe) wear is Marina. But I would buy products in quite a few of them. Not clothes.
I’m so pleased to see grayed and muted cool colors! They are ridiculously difficult to find. I have been slowly revamping my wardrobe after being color draped, and as a #TrueSummer (cool tone, low contrast), several of the Pantone colors in this post are spot on. For those of us who can’t wear white, Burnished Lilac acts as a pale neutral.