It's Time to Tango

It's the first "real" Monday of 2012. No bank holiday. No extended holiday weekend. No more excuses. With that comes the recognition that it's time to focus on the bigger picture for the year and start assessing the style landscape for the coming months.

Unless you've been asleep since Thanksgiving (and if you have, by all means congratulate yourself for unplugging for a while!) you're aware that Pantone has declared ravishing Tangerine Tango the "Color of the Year" for the coming 12 months.

Like every design professional, I hold Pantone in high regard. So it was with great surprise that I discovered that the annual selection of the favored hue comes not in response to emerging trends and the uprising of cultural design movements... but almost in contrast to them. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, heads the committee that chooses Pantone’s color of the year. While I had always assumed that the governing powers that be identified an undercurrent of movement towards a single hue, Leatrice reveals that her team chooses a color that they feel society needs as either a contrast to the mood or an assisting force.

2012's feisty orange, for example, "continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward." She continues by saying "Although orange is not pink, we felt the necessity to stay with that feeling that encourages us to face everyday troubles with some vigor. We know there is a big gray elephant in the room. We can’t ignore it."

Fortunately, I love bold colors like orange as well as last year's much beloved Honeysuckle. And, used in moderation, this zesty color can serve to spice up a room, an outfit, a mood and - if Leatrice's theory holds true - a society as well.

Featured: Tory Burch Slim Jean in Volcano, Bliss Studio Morocco Collection Poiret Pillow, Hermès Pierres d'Orient et d'Occident hand-rolled silk scarf, J. Crew Tippi Sweater in Vibrant Flame