The fashion world needs to get past the dark cloud of the recession and look to a brighter day when the shopping public will be excited to buy new styles and try new colors instead of merely replacing the basics. And that new attitude is largely being carried on the back of hot pink.
“I love fuchsia. I’m always drawn to it,” says designer Thakoon Panichgul, who has had success with a hot-pink lip print in recent seasons. “It’s a reaction color, and that’s what fashion is. You can’t quantify it, it’s just you know what you like. You can’t analyze it.”
But you can try.
It seems hot pink is aiming to do this summer and into fall what yellow did for last fall. The industry is using bright, happy, smiley-face-worthy color to court customers back into stores. Sure, there are browns and blacks on the racks, and that may very well be what people end up with in their bags, but eye-catching they are not.
“Right now, designers need to do something that will capture your attention at retail,” says Hope Greenberg, fashion director at Lucky.
The choice to use fuchsia, bright berry or highlighter pink makes sense, she says: They’re colors most women don’t already have in their closets but look good with plenty of what’s there.
“From neon to fuchsia, hot pink is very versatile. It goes with gray, brown, navy, army green ... there are a million things to wear it with,” says Greenberg, whose magazine dedicated its entire July issue to buys of less than $100. There was a lot of pink.
It’s good to start out test-driving such a bold color with a small purchase — perhaps a belt or shoe, she suggests. She started herself with a neon-pink T-shirt from American Apparel. “I wore it to work, and everyone loved it and gave me compliments all day. It made everyone want to go out and buy it,” Greenberg says.
Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure, is eyeing a hot-pink Dolce & Gabbana coat. “I feel like it’s really energizing. You have to be up for wearing the color, though. You are going to get noticed.”
Style expert Mary Alice Stephenson says that’s why celebrities like fuchsia and its cousin colors for the red carpet.
“It used to be pink was for Paris Hilton and breast-cancer awareness, but now all of a sudden there’s the interest in neon,” Stephenson says.
“It’s bright, fresh and sassy,” agrees model/actress Molly Sims, a client of Stephenson. She wore bright pink to the Vanity Fair Oscars Party this year. “You don’t need a lot of anything else with that color. It makes it easy in that way that you can keep the rest of your outfit simple.”
Sims adds: “Putting on pink — it just makes me feel good.”
Stephenson thinks the fall collections of designers such as Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez and Matthew Williamson did wonders to dispel any fears that hot pink is too young, too bold or too scary.
“They showed you it can look sophisticated and grown-up. ... Feminine pink is pretty, but it’s the over-the-top hue that makes it strong and sexy.”
It helps that bright pink works with many skin tones, giving an instant lift to the complexion, Stephenson notes. It also can be as bold as you want since it pairs nicely with basic black or a classic, tailored shape.
A hot-pink dress with black tights and ankle boots will be really chic come the new season, adds Lucky’s Greenberg, and a berry blouse under a jacket is a look you can wear anywhere. (First lady Michelle Obama did just that earlier this month at a charity luncheon.)
Unlike a shift in silhouette — to miniskirts or skinny jeans, for example — women of all ages and shapes can participate in a color trend, she says.
David Wolfe, creative director at The Doneger Group, a fashion-forecasting company, says pink is popping because the fashion industry is looking back at the 1930s for inspiration and ideas on getting out of the current downturn.
“Pink is a psychological expression of feeling good,” he says. “You like seeing it on others; people like seeing it on themselves.”
The color also plays into other trends, including a 1980s revival, the celebration of Barbie’s 50th birthday and the interest in India’s celebratory colors thanks to Slumdog Millionaire.
“Every time hot pink comes in, it sells like hot cakes,” Wolfe says. “Everybody looks good in it. It makes older people look younger and younger people more sophisticated.”
I wanted to read this feature piece on pink in fashion because I needed a break from all the seriousness out there. Girls/women love pink. It makes them feel glamourous and feminine, but not necessarily childish. Don't get me wrong, I love my LBD, but a pink dress just lights up a room.
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