The Pantone Colour Trend Report, an important colour guide for brands, is still primarily used in assortment planning. However, not all of the colour predictions translated well into retail. Fashion is now an industry ruled by its consumers, where products are now being pulled rather than pushed to them. Social media has also become an avenue to gauge consumers’ interests and set new trends.
In this report, we drew insights and validated the reception towards Fall/Winter 2019 colours derived from runways and social media from these fast fashion retailers:
More than 250,000 data points were screened across top womenswear categories – Tops, Dresses, Outerwear, Jumpsuits & Playsuits, Pants & Leggings, Skirts and Co-Ords – from July to December 2019.
All data used in this report comes from products retailing online, as tracked by Omnilytics, unless otherwise mentioned.
The Fall/Winter 2019 colours from Pantone’s Fashion Colour Trend Report were a blend of classic autumnal shades and strong, punchier hues. Four distinct colour stories were established from these wide range of colours – Lush Nature, Fearless Brights, Sunset Flare, and The Classics.
The autumnal shades such as red and brown were the key colours this season, which showed up in the form of Rocky Road, Sugar Almond, Chili Pepper and Biking Red.
Feminine shades also stood out in various shades of pink – from the bright Fruit Dove to soft and warm tones of Peach Pink and Crème de Pêche. The 2019 it-colour, Living Coral was not included in this season’s key colours. Instead the variation of the colour was well represented through the two peach shades.
Other prominent colours included earthy, natural shades in blue and green, which were prominent on the runways from Gucci to Christian Siriano.
Overall, the FW19 colour palettes were punchier and bolder compared to FW18, which showcased a set of regal colours with touches of soft pastel shades. FW18 also saw more yellow tones, which were not present in the key seasonal colours this year.
The total newly added SKUs in the Fall/Winter 2019 Pantone colours totalled 9,077 items across the 10 e-tailers analysed. Fashion seasonal colours dominated the newness in volume (55%), which was led by Lush Nature (32%) and Fearless Brights (14%). However, The Classics on its own commanded almost half of the newness (45%), with Vanilla Custard and Paloma taking the lead in the new-in SKUs for core colours.
The key seasonal colours started to increase in August (Chart 1) to gear up for Fall, with the highest peak seen mostly in September, especially across the Lush Nature palette. While most of the colours started to show a downward trend starting October, Biking Red from the Sweet Flame palette continued to rise further in October. All colours experienced a dip in November before rising again towards the end of the season.
The reds, which were represented by Chili Pepper and Biking Red, were the most aggressively stocked colours by retailers throughout the season, followed by the solid brown, Rocky Road. The forest green shade, Eden was also another popular colour among the retailers.
Meanwhile, retailers were not reacting to the bright and warm shades from the Fearless Brights and Sweet Flame palettes. These shades showed a downward trend and were stocked at a low quantity, as they are less synonymous with fall or winter colour palettes.
The main colours that dominated fashion influencers’ Instagram pages were similar to the Fall/Winter 2019 Pantone colours, especially deep brown, tonal grey, blue, and forest green.
Other colours that were commonly featured also included bright tones such as bright pink and neon green that were not part of this season’s key colours. These pop of colours have been gracing the influencers’ Instagram profiles since late 2018 and showed no signs of slowing down as they continued to be popular throughout 2019.
To better understand the impact of social media trends on retailers and consumers, we have analysed monthly new-in and sell-out counts, shown in Chart 2 and 3.
Based on Chart 2, retailers had reacted to the trending colours by consistently stocking those shades throughout the year before slowly decreasing the volume in September. However, the colours continuously showed steady sell-outs month-on-month throughout the season, signifying the relevance of these colours.
As these bright colours managed to perform well during the cold season, the popularity of these colours is expected to continue through Spring/Summer 2020, especially in Swimwear & Beachwear.
