What the Colour of the Year 2027 is

The Colour of the Year 2027 is Luminous Blue, a bright blue with a lit-from-inside quality, chosen jointly by the trend forecaster WGSN and the colour-system company Coloro. They announced it on 2 June 2025, a year and a half before the year it names.

Compare that with Pantone's Cloud Dancer, the 2026 colour we covered in January: an off-white, announced in December, covering the following twelve months. WGSN runs on a different clock because its audience is people who make clothes. Mills need to dye yarn and brands need to plan ranges long before anything reaches a shop floor. In April 2026 WGSN already announced its 2028 colour, a warm earth tone named Radiant Earth.

Why blue: lapis lazuli and cobalt

WGSN's theme for 2027 is interconnectedness. Luminous Blue gets compared to two materials. One is lapis lazuli, the stone painters ground into ultramarine pigment for centuries. The other is cobalt, a key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries behind today's energy transition. Old craft on one side, current infrastructure on the other.

Clare Smith, WGSN's Senior Colour Strategist, called it "both mysterious and eccentric" and said it would work from occasionwear to activewear. The announcement also stressed that the shade is gender-inclusive and not tied to a season.

Colour of the Year 2027 Luminous Blue: a cobalt blue dress in motion

Spring 2027 in New York: blue up 2.4 points

More than a year after the forecast, the spring 2027 womenswear shows in New York returned the first real result. In analytics published on 15 September, WGSN found blue up 2.4 percentage points on the previous season, with Luminous Blue the standout shade. Retro blues rode along with it, described by WGSN as calm and a little nostalgic.

A forecast issued two years out, then borne out by data on the runway. That is roughly the outcome a forecasting house hopes for. We'll read New York's full numbers in a separate piece.

WGSN's colour of the year versus Pantone's

Two separate systems. Pantone speaks to designers and the general public and announces each December for the year ahead. WGSN and Coloro speak to the supply chain, about two years ahead. Pantone's 2027 colour won't be revealed until this December; we'll cover it then.

How to wear Luminous Blue

  • Let one piece carry it. A cobalt dress or a blue knit against white or black. The colour does the talking.
  • Blue on blue. Bright blue layered with navy or denim wears better than blue against a contrast colour, and it's closer to what the retro blues on the runway looked like.
  • Start small. A scarf, a bag or a pair of shoes if you're not sure.

"A colour that points at a stone and a battery at the same time is really talking about time." — Guushu Colour Team