Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year Is White — But Not Quite

Cross-industry color authority, Pantone, has been naming a Color of the Year since 1999, selecting an annual hue that reflects the direction of product design as well as broader cultural sentiments.

Selected for 2026, “Cloud Dancer” (PANTONE 11-4201) is a soft and warm off-white — think oat milk, undyed cotton, or vanilla ice cream. It’s easier on the eyes than a pure white, but a more versatile neutral than a butter yellow. From Palace’s off-white outerwear from Winter ‘25 to MM6 Maison Margiela x Dr. Martens’ monochrome footwear collection, this color has been brewing in fashion’s zeitgeist all year.

We’re already seeing this hue everywhere, though it carries a gentle and understated presence. While Pantone’s colors of the 2000s – 2010s leaned into saturated brights and pastels, Pantone’s selections of recent years have been increasingly subdued. In 2021, Pantone chose two colors, one of which was Ultimate Gray. Later, 2024’s Peach Fuzz was a warm neutral-leaning pink, and 2025’s Mocha Mousse was — simply put — a light brown.

However, 2026 isn’t the first time a white-adjacent hue has been named the Pantone Color of the Year. Exactly 20 years ago, the 2006 Color of the Year was Sand Dollar, a similar but darker shade, closer to beige. The hue happens to be the closest color to white that Pantone had selected until 2026’s Cloud Dancer. But why exactly are we seeing more and more neutrals enter Pantone’s Colors of the Year? The answer is rather complicated.

Pantone calls Cloud Dancer “a conscious statement of simplification.” This mood of simplicity and discreet expression is rather fitting for today, as fashion shifts away from maximalism and logomania toward more streamlined approaches to dressing. The color could be understood as a product of the “quiet luxury” wave that swept fashion in the 2020s, a trend that has popularized tonal, monochromatic dressing and reignited a taste for the things deemed “classic.” A new generation of 21st-century luxury brands, like The Row, Lemaire, Jacquemus, and Auralee, align with this clean, modern aesthetic, which steers away from overt opulence in favor of humility. 

From a broader perspective, some have argued that color has been slowly disappearing from the world altogether. A 2020 graph based on analysis from London’s Science Museum Group resurfaced this year, presenting a jarring visualization of the decreasing number of colors in objects over the last 200 years. In their words, “things appear to have become a little greyer over time.”

In a world dominated by mass manufacturing, it’s perhaps more practical to produce fewer, more neutral colorways. Not only are neutrals objectively easier to sell to the general public, but they also eliminate the paralysis of consumer decision-making. In the last 25 years, choice has exploded by way of e-commerce platforms offering endless options. 

But beyond pragmatism, subjective cultural factors also influence today’s neutralized preferences. If we zoom in on where culture stands in late 2025, there’s a certain pull towards tranquility and naturalism, qualities that seem all the more scarce as modern times progress. Armed with its light and organic quality, Cloud Dancer serves as an antidote to the noise, offering a palette cleanser for a deluge of distractions.