#4: It was Orange and Pink and Green and Blue and Nude…

What's the first thing we see in a garment?

Not the silhouette, not the fabric content, not the seam construction, not the little design detail on the sleeve… it's color if you didn't already guess.

So much money is put into this aspect of retail and everything is taken into consideration. What worked last year? What will follow into this? Is my customer ready for this color? Do they even like this color? Which light should we show it in? Which shade? How much tint? What season is it again?

So many questions to answer and so many processes to go through. People make sure ever part of the process, the fabric mills, the garment factories, are all in sync with the color.

Color samples are sent to the mills, pieces are dyed and sent back to the company. To the untrained eye most of these swatches look exactly the same… WRONG! Under different lights, natural, incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, the colors look different.

Money is poured into the color industry to make sure everything is just right.

I've researched for Fall 2011 and these colors are said to be key:

Orange: Associated with stability, reassurance, warmth, sunset, autumn leaves

Greens: Promotes feelings of well-being and harmony, nature, security, stability and balance

Neutrals

Pink: Love, fresh, flirtation, and distinctly feminine

Electric Blues: Blues are associated with soothing and calming, loyalty, serenity, authority, protection, contemplative and promotes intellectual thought

Here's a video of Michelle Lamb talking about the importance of neutrals in the upcoming seasons: