*Dianne Ludwig runs the Instagram Welcome Back Slow Fashion, and has a background in fashion history and business consulting.

I had eye rolls aplenty reading Pantone's announcement that ‘Viva Magenta’ is the colour of the year for 2023. Laurie Pressman, the vice president of Pantone, waxed on: “We feel it’s a colour that reflects the global innovation and transformation that’s taking place, as well as being a colour that highlights the expansive possibilities that lay [sic] before us.”

Whatever, Laurie. Colour of the Year is a worn out cliche we just don't need. Colour forecasting is just a lever to get us to consume more and more, out with the old, in with the new.  

Colour forecasting has been around since the 1800s in some form or other. And I will admit that it's been exciting to see what the colour trends are. It wasn't so potentially damaging in the years gone by, when we bought far less clothes and kept them for years. Now, the concept of colour forecasting seems out of step in a world where the most sustainable clothing is what you already own. Which incidentally, probably won't be Viva Magenta if you bought it in the last few years. You see, the system is rigged to not repeat shades too often.

Colour trends don't just affect the world of "new" fashion. For example "highlighter green", a hot colour trend this season, is also flying off the racks in vintage and preloved stores. Mustard, a colour trend from a few years ago, no thanks. Our op shops and landfills sadly represent an archive of past colour forecasting.

There is so much "talk" about sustainability in the fashion industry, but most of it is a smoke screen. Fundamentally the industry hasn't moved away from tactics to get people to consume. In fact, much of the industry is doubling down on more growth.

If we have any hope of reaching the 1.5 °C temperature target by 2030, now a scary seven years away, we need to be reducing our fashion footprint by about 60% according to the Hot or Cool Institute. I don't think we need radical product innovation if it just keeps us all buying unsustainable quantities. We do need a fashion industry that scales back production, works with available materials and makes our existing wardrobes as expansive as possible. Mustard or magenta and every shade in between, whatever colour you decide.

It's easy to give up hope. Pantone, whose core business is colour, I predict will still be announcing Colour of the Year in 2030. But as consumers, we have the ace card in our hands. Buy less. And call out the greenwashing.