Valentino Red, Pink PP, Bottega Veneta Green. These colors have influenced entire collections and style codes, coming to become true symbols of the maisons, on par with the logos. And the trend seems to have no end.
Let’s give some examples. There are multiple brands that have made color their signature. First of all, Valentino. Its color scale originated with Valentine’s Red. Designer Valentino Garavani is in Barcelona, still a student, and notices a lady at the Barcelona Opera House wearing a suave, deep, glamorous red. This image resurfaced in his mind when he started his first atelier and decided that the ‘Valentino’ woman would be dressed in red, becoming a symbol of the Roman fashion house, for multiple years, not to say decades.
Taking the reins of the concept is Pierpaolo Piccioli, the fashion house’s current creative director. Valentino’s heritage marries with new colors, think Valentino Pink PP. For the fall/winter 2022 collection, Piccioli coats every detail in hot pink, creating a shade in collaboration with Pantone that comes to invade every accessory. And not only that. For the recent Paris fall-winter 2024-25 men’s fashion show, Pierpaolo Piccioli used the quintessential masculine color, blue, as the star of the show. “To fight preconceptions, you have to start from the inside,” says Piccioli, reported by Milano Finanza, “from how people view clothes. I started with ‘sky blue,’ a hue historically associated with men but with prejudice. And I worked to remove them.” The message is romantic, defying convention and bringing (un)masculinity to the stage.
Gucci is dyed ‘Rosso Ancora‘. With the arrival of creative director Sabato De Sarno from Gucci, the Florentine fashion house seems to have chosen a color associated with the “Gucci Ancora” concept. In the two women’s and men’s collections, presented last September and a few weeks ago, respectively, Gucci brought accessories, details and entire outfits dyed in Anchor Red to the runway. The color element has transcended the boundaries of the catwalk, landing on billboards and streetcars, covering monuments in various cities around the world. Gucci’s ‘red cherry’ becomes a brand symbol.
“A timeless color that has always been rooted in the brand’s DNA,” is how Dolce and Gabbana defines ‘black’ on its official website. “Black, an iconic and timeless color, possesses the unique ability to elevate any outfit with its depth and appeal and goes beyond just color: it represents confidence and energy.” From the first collection, SS’86 “Geometrissimo,” to the most recent Womenswear show AW 23-24 with the Dna Collection, black has been a constant and significant element in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s fashion journey. So much so that it was made into a book! The two designers have collected in “Black: the Color of Dolce&Gabbana,” the works of the leading photographers they have collaborated with, such as Helmut Newton and Juergen Teller.
If we talk about Hermès, what color comes to mind? And why specifically orange? The choice of this distinctive symbolic shade of the French fashion house, like its iconic bags, originated around the 1950s. The beige and brown boxes that the brand used were almost unobtainable after World War II, which led Èmile Hermès to source cartons in bright orange, actually becoming recognized worldwide from that time.
Daniel Lee brought ‘parakeet green‘ or ‘grass green’ to Bottega Veneta in 2019, covering bags and accessories, even going so far as to dye the brand’s packaging. His passion for using colors did not stop there. Landing at Burberry, he chose blue to crown his new path to creative direction.
In short, it’s really time to say ‘tan’ fashion. What will be the next color of choice for the maisons?
by Giorgia Dallasio
February 06, 2024
