Digital Lavender's journey to Colour of the Year 2023
WGSN and Coloro called out Digital Lavender as a shade to watch in 2021, and named it Colour of the Year 2023. Embodying a crisp coolness and soft femininity, this purple hue gained momentum throughout the seasons.
Explore our trend confirmation to see how WGSN has been tracking the rise of Digital Lavender since 2018, and discover what’s next for this trend.
By 2023, as we predicted, Digital Lavender was everywhere.
The purple pastel has infiltrated our everyday lives, appearing in products from the clothes in our wardrobe to the devices we use, and the songs we listen to.
Urangoo Samba, Head of Colour, WGSN, said:
“Up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on colour alone. With Digital Lavender coming into force in 2023, we forecast it at first for references of stability, serenity and digital escapism. It’s a sensorial shade that connects to holistic wellbeing and digital optimism we’re speaking a lot about these days.
“This shade poses that much-needed cautious optimism and escapism people are craving post-pandemic and during this polycrisis era. And even in times of budget crunch, it gives an imaginative and creative outlet, but also speaks of hope and balance.”
从1998到2023，再到2048
在全球时装周前排看秀
WGSN最具革命性的创举之一就是将全球时装秀内容推向大众。探索从纽约到巴黎的时装秀不再是少数幸运儿的专利，世界各地的客户都能一键查看最新资讯。时至今日，我们全面深入的时装秀场报道依然是其他产品服务难以比肩的。WGSN的另一项创举是现在将趋势报道与行为分析机器学习模型相结合，从而将趋势进一步转化为可行的商业影响。
探知消费者内心世界
WGSN始终认为，仅仅分析产品趋势是不够的，还必须分析人们的行为模式。在分析消费者行为的过程中，我们对趋势的敏锐把握不断扩展到其他行业。因此，继WGSN Fashion（时尚）之后，我们又推出了WGSN Interiors（室内设计和生活风尚）、Insight（市场分析）、Beauty（美妆）、Food & Drink（饮食）以及最近的Consumer Tech（科技消费品）。如今，我们的客户包括服装品牌、汽车制造商、食品制造商、酒店集团、科技创新企业等，帮助他们在未来创造出成功的产品、服务和体验。
强有力的辅助支持
除了精编内容和时装秀报道外，WGSN还为我们的客户带来了节省时间的革新工具，包括可编辑的原创艺术作品和可下载的印花和图案文件，方便客户更高效地进行设计，无需额外成本和等待，从而能将更多精力用于制定战略。如今，WGSN的客户可以免费使用各种工具，包括数以千计的印花和图案，以及创新的3D CAD。
视野直通全球
我们的趋势专家分布在全球各地，将世界资讯动向及时地带到客户的办公桌前。在90年代，这种零距离接触海内外文化和亚文化的方式很新鲜。而今天，WGSN仍然站在全球信息的最前沿，并通过我们的“STEPIC分析法”提炼宏观趋势内容。“STEPIC分析法”从社会、技术、环境、政治、行业、创意六大方面分析变化的过程，从360度的全方位视角构建预测内容。
2018
WGSN Fashion Feed starts reporting the #lilac hashtag, after seeing the colour pop up in multiple catwalk collections and street styles globally. As the hashtag gains volume, we introduce purple shades into our China forecasts for S/S 20, spanning Frosted Lilac, Purple Nitro and Violet Spectrum tints.
2019
Purple shades start to appear on A/W catwalk collections. As we see its growth through our data analysis, we back lilac as a key colour for S/S 20, having identified the hue across several Milan shows. A versatile punchy shade, its application on leather feels particularly fresh, as seen in Gabriele Colangelo’s catwalk collection.
2020
WGSN identifies colour as an opportunity to enhance wellbeing, as the global pandemic forges a re-evaluation of wellness towards a more holistic view. For S/S 22, we advise designers to harness the restorative and energising effect of warmer hues, and the therapeutic appeal of cooler hues, such as Digital Lavender.
2021
WGSN and Coloro name Digital Lavender as the Colour of the Year for 2023, declaring that this hue will reflect a more hopeful view of the future.
Digital Lavender pops up across different product types, traversing into outdoor apparel, as seen with The North Face Purple Label. On the catwalks, purple becomes one of the fastest-rising colours, especially in the cooler pastel levels (+55% YoY).
2022
After announcing it as a key colour, we continue tracking Digital Lavender in retail. Dominating on the S/S 23 catwalks, it makes up 61% of purple shades, up from 57.2% the year before.
Online searches for #DigitalLavender are rising by 36% YoY. TikTok is buzzing with #DigitalLavender hashtags, accumulating 2m worldwide views from April 2021.
2023
Colour of the Year 2023 Digital Lavender is everywhere, from gracing the catwalks and nail polish collections to car and iPhone shades, to even featuring on Taylor Swift’s album.
WGSN e-commerce data shows Digital Lavender rising in new-season dresses and emerging across skirts. Pastels dominate the S/S 24 catwalks, with #GelatoPastels overtaking #DopamineBrights, as identified by WGSN’s Colour Vision AI tool.
Being Digital-First in the 90's
In the 90s, the creative world, particularly the fashion industry, was used to trend books. Beautifully crafted, these books required months of work, but the result, although correct, was static information that wasn’t evolving at the pace that trends were. And even as an industry that prides itself on being in with what's new, it was also slow to react. This was what we were set to disrupt. As a digital-first platform that revolutionised trend forecasting as we were born, we brought velocity and change.
In those early days, to transform fast what was too rooted in the past we needed to make big moves. In the beginning, WGSN supplied each of our clients with a computer so their team could access the trends in their workspace. Today, with the digital revolution, that is no longer needed but the revolution we started in 1998 remains in the creative industry to this day.