The fashion
world needs to get past the dark cloud of the recession and look to a brighter day when the shopping public will be excited to buy new styles and try new colors. And that new attitude is largely being carried on the back of hot pink.
"I love fuchsia. I'm always drawn to it," says designer Thakoon Panichgul, who has had success with a hot-pink lip print in recent seasons. "It's a reaction color, and that's what fashion is. You can't quantify it, it's just you know what you like. You can't analyze it."
But you can try.
It seems hot pink is aiming to do this summer and fall what yellow did last year. The industry is using bright, happy, smiley face-worthy color to court customers back into stores. Sure, there are browns and blacks on the racks, and that very well may be what people end up with in their bags, but eye-catching they are not.
"Hot pink is all over the place right now," says Hope Greenberg, fashion director at Lucky. "Right now, designers need to do something that will capture your attention at retail. You really need clothes that are going to jump out at the customer."
And the choice to use fuchsia, bright berry or highlighter pink makes sense twofold, she says: They're colors most women don't already have in their closets, but they look good with the shades they do.
"From neon to fuchsia, hot pink is very versatile. It goes with gray, brown, navy, army green. There are a million things to wear it with," says Greenberg, whose magazine dedicated its entire July issue to buys under $100. There was a lot of pink.
It's good to start out test-driving such a bold color with a small purchase -- perhaps a belt or shoe, she suggests. She started with a neon pink T-shirt from American Apparel. "I wore it to work, and everyone loved it and gave me compliments all day. It made everyone want to go out and buy it," Greenberg says.
Meanwhile, Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure, is eyeing a hot pink Dolce & Gabbana coat. "I feel like it's really energizing. You have to be up for wearing the color, though. You are going to get noticed."
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Style expert Mary Alice Stephenson says celebrities are attracted to fuchsia and its cousin colors for the red carpet for that very reason.
"It's bright, fresh and sassy," says actress Molly Sims, a Stephenson client. She wore bright pink to the Vanity Fair Oscars party this year. "You don't need a lot of anything else with that color. It makes it easy in that way that you can keep the rest of your outfit simple."
Sims adds: "Putting on pink -- it just makes me feel good."
Stephenson thinks the fall collections of designers such as Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez and Matthew Williamson did wonders to dispel any fears that hot pink is too young, too bold or too scary.
"They showed you it can look sophisticated and grown-up. Feminine pink is pretty, but it's the over-the-top hue that makes it strong and sexy."
It helps that bright pink works with many skin tones, giving an instant lift to the complexion, notes Stephenson.
A hot-pink dress with black tights and ankle boots will be really chic next season, adds Lucky's Greenberg, and a berry blouse under a jacket is the kind of look you can wear anywhere.
David Wolfe, creative director at the Doneger Group, a fashion-forecasting company, says pink is popping because the fashion industry is looking back at the 1930s for ideas on getting out of the recession.
"Pink is a psychological expression of feeling good," he says. "You like seeing it on others; people like seeing it on themselves."
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