Do you want to know what colors you can invest in for the next decade? And do ya wanna get a little color nerdy with me? If so, read on--I'll tell you why I think this color family is going to be foundational for the years to come.

The color is CLAY

It’s a range of colors that all derive from the NATURAL WORLD—literally from the earth. And that’s significant, because the earth and climate change are one of the big issues of our time. Subconsciously or not, we feel grounded by this color.

a landscape in Death Valley that includes multiple colors of earth image: Melodi Meadows

 

Clay also relates to the colors of SKIN. The grounding feeling that we get from this immense range of colors might have something to do with the way human color vision evolved. New studies support the idea that we might see color to help us detect subtle variations in emotion in human faces. This helped us form the social bonds necessary to the survival of the human race. This might be why our eyes can detect more variations in warm colors than any other color range. 

 

Angelica Dass - photographs of 10s of people of different skin colors, matched to different Pantone swatches

image: Angelica Dass 

 

It’s not surprising that colors that evoke something as fundamental as human touch and social interaction would feel good to us right now. And since we're at the pivotal beginning of the decade, we're likely to continue seeking similar comforts for awhile.

 

Sacree Frangine Illustration of 4 women embracing

 image: Sacrée Frangine

 

Clay relates to another big issue of our time, GENDER, but not in the way you might be thinking. On the pink side of this spectrum, we have a natural pigment called Potter’s Pink. Does it remind anyone of Millennial Pink? It might, because it does derive from that color phenomenon that's named after a generation. But this is how Millennial Pink has evolved, and grown a little more grounded.

 

gradation of watercolor pinks

 

two kids of ambiguous gender, dressed in pink

 image: Carissa Gallo

 

I say it’s related to gender because Millennial Pink, of course, was the beginning of a long lasting trend toward genderless pink that I'm predicting will be around for good looong (historically significant) while.

 

quilt made of stitched-together panty hose of different colors

 image: Turiya Magadlela

 

So why is clay going to stick around for the next decade? We’ve been seeing these colors evolve and morph for awhile now, but precisely BECAUSE we’re looking for the stability of the ground beneath our feet, and we’re seeking things as fundamental as a healthy earth and a healthy society, I believe we’re going to see these colors form the foundation of our palette for years to come.

Stay tuned on Instagram to see how CLAY has come to life at Woonwinkel.

SHOP CLAY