Color of the year 2027: Luminous Blue, the paint brands’ greens and the Pantone pick still to come

Luminous Blue, the WGSN and Coloro pick for 2027

The first answer to the question of the color of the year 2027 arrived early. On 29 April 2025 the trend forecaster WGSN and its color partner Coloro named Luminous Blue as their Colour of the Year 2027. The shade carries the Coloro code 125-28-38. In the press release, WGSN senior color strategist Clare Smith calls it both mysterious and eccentric, with a broad appeal that should work from occasionwear to activewear.

Behind the choice sits one idea. WGSN describes interconnectedness as the defining theme of 2027: links between polarities such as light and dark, nature and technology, online and offline. In a later post on its blog, the forecaster compares the shade to lapis lazuli, a stone used for centuries as the base of a vivid blue pigment, and to cobalt, a key ingredient of lithium-ion batteries. The blue is meant to connect a craft past with an energy future.

It is worth keeping the status of this pick in view. A forecast is one company’s view of what buyers will want, published early so that mills, factories and brands have time to prepare. WGSN describes itself as a forecaster that combines expert judgement with data science, and Smith cites a 93% accuracy rate for its forecasts. That figure comes from the company itself, not from an independent audit, so treat it as a claim.

Reading the code 125-28-38 and where the blue is meant to go

A Coloro code is easier to read than it looks. In a 2021 post WGSN explains that each color gets a seven-digit code. The first three digits give the hue, one of 160 steps running from red through yellow, green and blue to purple. The middle two give lightness, from 0 for the blackest black to 99 for bright white. The last two give chroma, from 0 for grey to 99 for neon. Read that way, Luminous Blue sits on the darker side of the scale with moderate intensity, a deep blue rather than an electric one.

WGSN also spells out where it expects the color to work. In apparel it is pitched as gender-inclusive and transseasonal. In technology it suits glossy, metallic and lacquered finishes. In beauty it points to color cosmetics and packaging, and in interiors to traditional and crafted qualities, drawing on old dyeing techniques.

Five key colors WGSN set for spring and summer 2027

The April 2025 release did more than name one blue. It also set the S/S 27 Key Colours, five shades chosen from Coloro’s library of more than 3,500 hues. Next to Luminous Blue stand Energy Orange 018-57-34, Pop Pink 151-73-22, Meadowland Green 050-61-19 and Clay 014-60-13.

Energy Orange stands for resilience amid change, including climate change, and for a wish for safety and protection. Pop Pink is joyful and carefree, tied to play and to what WGSN calls strategic joy. Meadowland Green is a nourishing mid-green linked to rest, slower living and a return to basics. Clay is a warm, earthy neutral with a pink tone that the release calls trustworthy and resilient, a bridge between ancestral and futuristic materials.

The release also explains the practical side. WGSN runs what it calls Feasibility Intelligence checks to confirm that the key colors can actually be produced across different materials, and brands can buy the five physical swatches from Coloro. John Newton, head of color technology at Coloro, says WGSN trusts those swatches to communicate color accurately. For anyone who works with suppliers, the code and the physical swatch matter more than the poetic name.

Pantone has not announced its 2027 color yet

Many readers mean only one company when they ask about a color of the year: Pantone. As of 15 October 2026, Pantone has not announced its pick for 2027. Its own Color of the Year page still shows Cloud Dancer, PANTONE 11-4201, as the color for 2026. NBC New York reported that announcement on 4 December 2025 and quoted Pantone’s description of a billowy, balanced white imbued with a feeling of serenity.

Any name that circulates now as the Pantone 2027 color is a guess. The company has published no date for the next reveal, so the only reference point is last year’s announcement in early December. Pantone and WGSN are separate companies with separate systems: one gives a Pantone number, the other a Coloro code. Nothing obliges their picks to match.

Paint brands lean towards green for 2027

Paint makers announce for their own market, walls and homes, and this year most of them landed on green. Dulux named Soulful Sage, as the trade magazine kbbreview reported on 8 September 2026. Its parent company AkzoNobel describes the shade as an ethereal, soft and silvery green, chosen through annual trend research with architects, interior designers, trend specialists and product developers. Around it AkzoNobel built three color stories called Glow, Light and Lift.

Sherwin-Williams picked Celery, SW 6421, reported by the industry title PCI on 15 September 2026; the company’s Trendsight Team chose it jointly with HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams. The brand’s own page calls it an airy, herbal green with subtle yellow undertones. Behr chose Grounded, T27-01, an olive and moss green with a hint of brown, reported by PCI on 30 August 2026 as the tenth year of the brand’s program.

Benjamin Moore completes the group. By 15 October 2026 its own Color of the Year 2027 page shows Webster Green HC-130 and describes it as balancing the stability of blue with the warmth of yellow, with an eight-color trends palette around it. The greens do not contradict WGSN’s blue: paint picks speak to rooms, fashion forecasts to products, and every company chooses for its own buyers.

How brands and designers put a forecast color to work

A color of the year is a reference, not an order. Brands use it as one accent in a season palette, a limited edition, a packaging run or an advertising campaign. AkzoNobel shows how far it can travel: besides decorative paint, it builds palettes for aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, metal furniture, lighting, cabinetry, flooring, building products and architecture. Pantone, according to NBC New York, pairs its 2026 color with a creative program in which artists interpret the shade.

For a small business the sensible use is modest. A logo and a brand palette are meant to last for years, while a color of the year lives for a season or two. The usual approach is to try the shade where change is cheap: a social media template, a seasonal banner, a single product, a shop window. If customers respond, it can stay; if not, it goes without a redesign. Rebuilding an identity around a forecast is a bet on someone else’s guess.

Folk custom: colors for greeting the Fire Goat year

In Russia many people also ask which colors to wear when they greet 2027. This question comes from a popular custom, not from the design industry: dressing for New Year’s Eve in the colors of the animal of the Chinese calendar. In that calendar the Goat is the eighth of twelve signs, and the year of the Fire Goat runs from 6 February 2027 to 25 January 2028, according to the Wikipedia article on the sign. So the animal year does not even begin on 1 January.

The colors attached to it come from Chinese philosophy. In the five phases system, described in Wikipedia’s article on wuxing, fire is linked with red and orange, while earth, the goat’s fixed element, is linked with yellow. The same article on the Goat lists green, red and purple as lucky colors for the sign in popular astrology. All of this is tradition and entertainment. It has nothing to do with WGSN, Pantone or paint makers, and nobody confirms or measures it.

Confirmed color picks on 15 October 2026 and what is still due

Here is the state of things on 15 October 2026. Confirmed and published: Luminous Blue from WGSN and Coloro with the five spring and summer 2027 key colors, Soulful Sage from Dulux, Celery from Sherwin-Williams, Grounded from Behr and Webster Green from Benjamin Moore. Still to come: Pantone’s 2027 color. The previous one was announced in December 2025, but Pantone has not named a date for the next, so check its official page rather than rumors.

If you plan to use one of these shades, work from codes, not names. Ask a supplier for the Coloro code, the Pantone number or the paint brand’s product code, and order a physical swatch or a sample pot before you approve anything, because the same color looks different on every screen and every material. Try it on a small item first, and keep your core brand colors unchanged.

For the New Year question the practical answer is simpler. Fire Goat colors are a custom, so wear red, orange or anything else that suits you and the party. The industry color of the year 2027 and the folk colors of the Goat are two different stories, and only the first one comes with official codes and dated announcements.