Pantone’s color of the year for 2026 is white – sorry, cloud dancer. Pantone announced the shade on Thursday, describing it as a “distinct white that promises clarity.” The accompanying image shows a man with close-cropped hair and dressed in white, with his arms outstretched against a background of clouds.
The company writes, “Pantone 11-4201 Cloud Dancer encourages true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe, creating space for innovation.” But I can only see bearish indicators.
This is the third year in a row that Pantone colors have slipped into more and more unobtrusive, neutral hues: In 2024 we had Peach Fuzz, in 2025 it was Mocha Mousse, and now we’ve moved beyond neutrals into the void. The color of the year is above all a marketing tool, a launchpad to sell cookware and clothing in a new color—but even by that measure Cloud Dancer seems serious.
There have been interesting trends from past recessions: fashion became more boring, more minimal, and more basic, and startups rising from the ashes of the Great Recession adopted a similar aesthetic for branding and corporate identity. If you spend any time on social media — especially content geared toward women — this spare, white emptiness will sound familiar to you: Clean girls should feel right on trend. Cloud Dancer is a continuation of the rewards given out by social media algorithms, attracting the widest group of people scrolling these days.
There is also an unnatural vision of choosing white as the defining color after years of rising white nationalism in America. Pantone said Washington Post That “skin color was not involved at all.” But this choice, even if not explicitly political, seems like it was meant to provoke a reaction – if a jeans ad can get people talking about your brand, why not use a color to stir the pot? I think it was really fitting that “rage bat” was the Oxford word of the year.
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