Pink and its various shades, hot, pale or pastel, are the seasons’ trending colours. As the hot pink shade packed a punch at this year’s Cannes and made a sweeping aesthetical shift into fashion and décor spaces, there is no doubt that this colour of youth can be put to varied use to celebrate fascinating pivots and powerful transitions.
Be it the Pink Sari Gang called the Gulabi Gang of Bundelkhand (Uttar Pradesh) or the nonviolent protest called the ‘Pink Chaddi Campaign’, the colour has been associated with revolutions across the globe.
This year, Asian Paints’ colour of the year is ‘Transcendent Pink’. The brands ColourNext trend forecast states the mood is to take challenges in stride and remain undeterred across sectors like health, metaverse, solopreneurship, gender, fashion and décor. “This year is about embracing the new and translating that into décor spaces. Transcendent pink is going to inspire all to explore a whole new kaleidoscope of life,” says Amit Syngle, MD & CEO, Asian Paints.
As the colour has a mature transitional quality, akin to the ever-expanding consciousness, it is a combination of blue and red. That’s why it can be used in unconventional and distinctive forms, and can be taken into different palettes of pink.
Celebrities, too, have set the tone at this year’s Grammy Awards with shades of the hue: Trevor Noah, Justin Bieber and Travis Barker. Actor Billy Porter wore a bright pink Valentino suit from the brand’s special Valentino Pink Collection. Actor Sebastian Stan wore a look from the collection to the Met Gala, making a hot-pink statement. Cannes saw Aishwarya Rai Bacchan, Elsa Hosk, Katherine Langford, Masoom Minawala Mehta in some head-turning pinks. Priyanka Chopra wore a Sabyasachi powder pink sari with a pink rose in her bun at Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas’ wedding.
“In colour psychology, pink is a sign of hope. It is a positive colour inspiring warm and comforting feelings, a sense that ‘everything will be ok’. It also signifies and invokes peace, tenderness, love, and kindness, which everyone is in need of these days, given the condition of the past two years. The popularity of Cherry Blossom or Sakura in the past few years has also had a butterfly effect on the colour’s traction. From a design and decor perspective, pink is an easier colour to play around as it compliments other colours,” says Aditi Murarka Agrawal, co-founder, Nestasia, a home décor and tableware brand.
The United Colors of Benetton reopened its Place de L’Opera Paris flagship store fitted in the new ‘pink box’ pop-up concept. The concept launched last year during Milan Fashion Week is being rolled out in other European locations in the coming months.
In fact, at the Spring sales at Christie’s this year, pop art legend Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn Monroe was sold for $195 million as the most expensive 20th century artwork to sell at an auction. The painting in shades of pink has been a prized possession of Warhol’s silkscreen paintings.
Among places like Jaipur in Rajasthan painted in a romantic dusty pink hue, which define the city since 1876, after it was painted pink to welcome Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, it is also called the Pink City. The colour associated with love, kindness, and femininity, is sometimes questioned for its seriousness. At the time when the Indian currency note came out in shades of pink and magenta post demonetisation, the colour became an important social media conversation on whether it was real or fake currency.