My favourite key colour of Spring/Summer 2023

Quinj Catabui
Aug 26, 2022
3 min read

Updated: Sep 6, 2022

(Collage by Quin-Tessentials)

One of the most exciting parts of fashion seasons would be – in my opinion, at the very least – colour trend forecasting. There’s a ringing sensation in my ears and, of course, the occasional eyegasm when I see the most expected colours on the runway, to be enchanted yet again by the hues impact.

When thinking about Spring or Summer palettes, it’s going to be something around the corners of brightly dimmed, sunny-ish, pastel, and fresh colours – typically the ones that just scream, “It's Spring/Summer, Bitches!”.

On one hand there’s this unspoken truth in fashion: everyone uniformly decided that raw or saturated colours are the kings and queens of summer hues. But the colours you’re thinking of by my description probably gave you a colour hemorrhage right about… now. However, we’ve slowly drifted from that colour scheme. No matter how in-fashion raw hues are, there’s no denying that there’s a new palette cleansing our inner-colour-judge-Judy.

From powerful and strong colours, the fashion scene has been utilising the quiet forms of soft, dimly or brightly saturated, kind-to-the-eyes colour combinations for over a few years now, but it's time for a new set to pave the way for the fashion seasons to come.

From a collection of sources like COLORO, WGSN and the Fashion Network; these were the forecasted colour trends for Spring/Summer 2023. And later on, I’ll show examples from the Spring 2023 runway shows.

(Photo by Coloro)

According to the COLORO + WGSN, the primary palette faces of S/S 2023 are Digital Lavender, Sundial, Luscious Red, Tranquil Blue, Verdigris and their respective hues.

Quoting Coloro’s official statement, the key colours are “chosen after the world has experienced a long period of restriction and uncertainty. As consumers find their feet, these key colours will enact a connection to feelings of optimism, stability, hope and balance."

As the world shifts through yet again another phase after the pandemic, Coloro represents a transformative soft palette aiming to encourage and heal habits as the world’s consumers face again newer challenges.

Being halfway through 2022, many trend forecasters, and of course officially said by others, 2023 will predominantly emphasise on recovery, from mental and physical health, economic reaffirmation and businesses motivated for sustainable and circular economies.

Coloro couldn’t have said it any better than that. Considering the impact of social issues and activism that drove through social media, over the past two – almost three – years, it’s no surprise that after draining battles, recovery is a necessary aim.

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of purple and all its natural hues – purple has me biased what can I say. I call it a win that for two years, a natural selection of purple will yet again be in the spotlight. This year’s colour of the year was a low saturated but dynamic purple and blue hue; Very Peri. But as mentioned earlier, 2023 will focus on a brighter tone to bring about a sense of reformation. I believe it’s a perfect colour description as 2022 (Very Peri) will transform to 2023 (Digital Lavender).

But it wouldn’t be fair to single out Digital Lavender. Through the pandemic, we’ve seen micro trends grow with a recycled retro scheme with a modern touch, which is why it's necessary to to bring about Verdigris in to the limelight, which according to Coloro is all about retro vibes, and a test of time.

But anyway let’s look at some of my favourite Spring 2023 looks with the respective colours!

JW Anderson Spring 2023 Menswear