COLOUR Isn’t Back. It Never Left. 

Many say “let’s make fashion fun again“,  “quiet luxury is dead” or “colour is back” But what do i say..? Colour has always been the new black. I disagree that colour was ever absent from fashion. It was simply overshadowed by changing trends.

Fashion moves fast online, creating pressure to constantly follow the next trend. 

This idea of colour being the new headline isn’t quite true, especially when Pantone’s colour of the year for 2026 is Cloud Dancer, a soft white representing quiet reflection and simplicity. If colour is supposedly ‘back’, why is minimalism still shaping the conversation? How clarifying can it be if there is no expression room enough for this so called quiet reflection?

Why should we constantly be told, The colours in season/ trending? The colour/s the cool guys & girls are wearing? 

Colour is used for one to express themselves and that should be done freely without the pressures of the media. but colour is still and will always be moving in different spaces. In fashion circles bright colours and colour blocking has always been a movement looking at Michael Rider at Celine, Dario Vitale at Versace, online fashion communities, colour has always been there. Pierpaolo Piccioli’s spring/summer 2026 collection completely washed out Pantone’s colour of the year, which makes me so confident that colour was never absent. 

Is following a trend really worth the cost of your own expressions? I believe colour is unique to each person, what you may see may not look the same to another.

Colour became more accessible in 1856, when 18-year-old chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally created mauveine, the first synthetic dye. This made vibrant colours affordable beyond the wealthy, allowing more people to experiment with colour in fashion. So, colour has never been a new fashion movement; it has always been there, waiting to be expressed.

Colour has always been part of fashion. Trends may shift from minimalism to “colour is back,” colour was never truly absent. It has always been a way to express identity, culture and individuality. From ancient traditions to modern fashion, colour has carried meaning. So, when people say, “colour is back,” I say: colour has always been the new black.