What’s the hot new colour, according to London fashion week? Anything you want, so long as it’s bright and bold. And the more you mix things up, the better
At first I thought London fashion week was going to be all about parma violet. “Did you know purple flowers attract the most bees?” Roland Mouret asked, as I stroked a low-backed silk blouse in pale, luminous lavender on a rail in his studio on the first day. Pantone had just announced Orchid Bloom as one of its key colours for 2022.
Then I changed my mind, and became convinced that apple green had it in the bag. Alice Temperley’s collection sold me on a halter-neck gown and a wrap dress, both in the bold mid-green, halfway between lime and emerald, that Americans call Kelly green and that reminds me of biting into a crisp granny smith. That sharp, outdoorsy green has been on the ascent in fashion for a while, beloved by label of the moment Bottega Veneta.
But as shows went on over the weekend, one catwalk was a riot of yolk yellow and the one after that was a symphony in shades of orange and burgundy, and it dawned on me that there is no one colour of next season. Instead, next season is all about colour. Real colour, mind. Not the chalky, unusual shades that fashion tends to fall for – milky off-white pecorino, soft Tiepolo pink, rich espresso brown – but the brash shades you find in a box of crayons or a pack of highlighters, the colours of the neons at Piccadilly Circus or in an amusement arcade.
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