Pantone Colour of the Year 2022: Very Peri
Be ready to fall for Very Peri, an optimistic hue to start the new year
For over 20 years, the Pantone Colour Institute has released their colour of the year, based on a mind-bending collection of global research. To arrive at the lucky hue, experts examine a number of influential factors, including fashion and textile trends, new artists and exhibits, popular travel destinations, technological developments, film and other forms of entertainment in productions, social media platforms, upcoming sporting events, socio-economic and political conditions, home furnishing, product packaging, and really, all other matters of design.
For 2022, the Institute has named a completely new colour, which they’ve dubbed Very Peri—undoubtedly a play on periwinkle blue. While institute says the colour is considered part of the blue family (which is often used to communicated stability) but with a violet-red undertone, it is clear that this shade is in fact, purple!
According to Pantone, the choice represents an “altered landscape of possibilities, opening us up to a new vision as we rewrite our lives. Rekindling gratitude for some of the qualities that blue represents complemented by a new perspective that resonates today, Very Peri places the future ahead in a new light.” Clearly inspired by the world’s hopes and optimism for finally putting the daily worries of the pandemic and overall isolation behind us, other inspirations for the shade include the growth of digital art and design, including the rise of NFTs, the new “dynamic virtual world” (hello, Metaverse), gaming trends, and the overall fusion of the colours of our physical world with those we see on-screen.
If all these ideas of a new, virtual world have you feeling a bit lost, the good news is that the colour Purple, while perhaps a bit polarizing for some, is undoubtedly imbued with a feeling of fun, vibrancy, and overall frivolity and richness. After all, it’s a symbol of royalty and rarity, and also can be seen as the coming together of two distinct colour families: red and blue.
It’s a refreshing symbol of optimism for the future that is much welcomed, especially when you consider the shades forecasted by the institute in recent years, including a very industrial-sque pairing of grey and yellow, and a basic, banker’s blue.
Of course, we think the most exciting part of Very Peri, is how it will translate to our jewellery boxes! After years of blue and pink gems dominating the market, a return to purple feels fun again. While Amethysts, which were once considered of the rarest and most-sought after gems will likely come back into fashion in a big way (look for all saturations to return to glory, from a pale lavender to the richest purple), we also have our eye on Purple Sapphires, which have been extremely uncommon in the past if only because they were in the shadow of their royal blue counterparts, as well of course, for Kunzites and Tanzanites. Both are a rarity in the gem world, which customers are clicking to more and more in order to add massive future value to their collections, with Tanzanite in particular likely to soon ride a new wave of fame, thanks to their limited availability (with only once source, many experts agree they are likely to disappear altogether in the near future.)
Megan Kirkwood 
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