Rainbow reign

Back in 1963, the founder of the New Jersey-based corporation Pantone, Lawrence Herbert, developed a standardized color matching system that's today the most widely used system for designers and artists. For decades, the company's Pantone Colour Institute has garnered loads of publicity for its annual "color of the year" announcement every December. For 2018, it's Ultra Violet, a blue-based purple that's referred to as mysterious, spiritual and intuitive.

All this isn't just for design, of course; fashion is a focus for Pantone, too. In September, the institute released its fashion color trend report for spring 2018.

Romantic, sentimental and refreshing, the spring palette features 12 hues from London and New York's Fashion Weeks, with several shared between the two. Also for the first time, four classic colors that transcend seasons have been highlighted. According to Pantone, encouraging self-expression and feelings of optimism and confidence are the key messages it aims to convey with this particular palette.

New York Fashion Week

Most of the color names are fairly self-explanatory, though a few require some detail. The slightly bluish-green Arcadia gets its name from the "unspoiled land" in Greece, situated on the country's Peloponnese peninsula. Emperador is named for the world's largest brandy maker, originally from the Philippines. And Almost Mauve, which doesn't quite look like the pale-purple mauve we're accustomed to, seems closer to beige or off-white.