What does Pantone's 2024 Colour of the Year really mean? And why it makes us think of happy times

Pastel colors divide the population into two, giving life to fierce feuds between lovers and opponents of sweet shades. Not many years ago, turquoise and peach pink ruled Instagram's feed, still stuck in the era of square-format posts, reflecting consumers' passion for DIY projects, including collages and cake decorating. Once the DIY boom faded, influencers and their followers began to appreciate branded outfits and fashion show stories. Now, although pastel colors are nothing more than a stain of a pastime, a package of fondant left to rot in a Millennial's pantry, we begin to smell them again. On the runway, we're appreciating turquoise again, and in cinema, photography, and styling in Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things," inspiration is drawn from the sweet intensity of yellow. Meanwhile, Pantone, the world's most famous color company, has chosen Peach Fuzz as the Color of the Year 2024. It might seem like a bold choice, considering the contrasting feelings that peach color evokes, but Pantone's decisions never are. Peach Fuzz was a silent hue that lived in the shadow of the big Barbie pink this summer but has already made appearances on the runway and red carpet. 

Like baby blue, peach pink perfectly tells the interplay between masculine and feminine that contemporary fashion seeks. It's not as bold as Viva Magenta, the color of 2023 that ruled our summer, amplifying the hyper-femininity that Barbie made us fall in love with, or Very Peri from 2022, dynamic and full of joy because finally free from pandemic restrictions. Instead, it slowly settles between elegance and modernity - although the material it's made of is mostly vintage. The meaning of Pantone Color of the Year 2024 is this: a meeting halfway, an embrace between two parts, a retreat into absolute calm, and a strong nostalgia for what has been. The best wish for those who don't see the end of 2023.