Dancing in the Clouds: the 2026 colour designated by the Pantone Color Institute is Pantone 11-4201 Cloud Dancer: “A neutral shade of white that fosters calm, clarity, and a creative breathing space in a world full of noise.”
Pantone 2026
Pantone’s website crashed as the countdown ended, while the announcement on social media showed a woman dressed in white, gazing dreamily at a cloud-filled sky.
Since 1999, beginning with Cerulean Blue, Pantone’s global experts have been naming the Color of the Year, the shade they believe will become prevalent across fashion, food, design, and entertainment; in 2026, that mantle falls to Cloud Dancer.
Cloud Dancer is a blank canvas on which to begin anew, explained Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute: “An invitation to open new paths and new ways of thinking.”
The mood is clearly one of serenity and an invitation to open new chapters; the election in New York of the young mayor Zohran Mamdani could be an example of this new philosophy. And yet, given the recent political climate in the US under Donald Trump, some, such as New York Times fashion editor Vanessa Friedman, have raised the possibility of MAGA and anti-DEI instrumentalisation, since the white of 2026 has ‘wiped out’ the 2025 colour, Mocha Mousse, a light brown between cappuccino and chocolate.
“Skin tones did not influence this at all,” Laurie Pressman, president of the Pantone Institute, was quick to point out, noting that Pantone has already received similar questions about other recent choices. “With Peach Fuzz in 2024 and then with Mocha Mousse 2025, we were asked whether the choice had anything to do with race or ethnicity. That’s not how it works. We try to understand what people are looking for and which colour can hopefully provide an answer.” And so Pressman invites us to look beyond metaphors: “It’s a softer white,” she said, describing the hue. “It isn’t a pure white, it isn’t a technical white, it isn’t that optically very bright white that, if we think back to the post-Covid period, people were seeking. This is deliberately an unbleached white, a very natural-looking white.”
Meanwhile, the launch of Cloud Dancer has attracted a host of brands eager to keep pace: Hasbro’s Play-Doh has created a tub of Play-Doh in this hue, while Post-it has released pads in the same shade as part of its Neutrality Collection; and the Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel chain will centre its afternoon tea and spa experiences on this minimalist colour. Spotify has also come on board, in its first collaboration with Pantone, creating a multisensory experience that translates “the emotion of colour” into sound through personalised playlists.
This article is an automatic translation. Click here to read the original article.
