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Leatrice Eiseman Reveals Color Trends, 2007 Palettes at International Housewares Show

HICAGO, IL (March 13, 2006)—As ever, home furnishings colors are influenced by lifestyles and playstyles, Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman told an audience today in her presentation, “Future Color Trends: Modernizing Color,” at the 2006 International Home & Housewares Show.

“And change doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the past,” she noted. “Modern colors have a new feeling—high touch but not high tech—to stop the consumer in his or her tracks.”
             
   Eiseman is executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training and has been selected by Fortune magazine as one of America’s top eight decision-makers.

Owned and operated by the International Housewares Association (www.housewares.org), the Show is being held March 12-14 at McCormick Place here, and features 2,100 exhibitors from around the globe, including more than 450 new companies, including thousands of new products.

“Color is also influenced by pop culture, fashion, entertainment and social issues,” Eiseman said. The upcoming movie, “The DaVinci Code,” for example, is “all about mixed colors,” but color can also be used for more serious subjects such as the use of pink as a symbolic color to draw attention to breast cancer. (“It takes pink out of the realm that it’s a girly, Barbie Doll color.”)

The modern look in housewares, from clocks to pitchers, is not replacing the traditional, she stressed, pointing out that the hottest new trend in furnishings is American Colonial. “Consumers are replacing the past,” she said. “Shaker chairs fit into contemporary settings.”

As for trends in color, Eiseman turned to her eight color palettes forecast through 2007:

• Simply Elegant: “This is a prime example of the marriage of traditional and modern-day looks, with the unexpected blends of mahogany and silvered mink, silvery blues, elegant purples and deep bronzed tones set off by the glint of pale gold, frosty almond and copper.”

• Classic Chic: “Tasteful tones are always in style. Here are glittery looks, a kind of glitz. Gray flannel is the fabric of the year—particularly soft gray. The year 2007 will be going into more grays in housewares and elsewhere. Plus, there’s a little ripple of excitement provided by mineralized yellow. A classic palette would not be complete without black and white, often used with cappuccino brown.”

• Lumens: “Here are luminous finishes interspersed with multi-faceted hues. In addition, I can’t say strongly enough that bright white is a leading trend for 2007. People say white isn’t a color, but the human eye perceives it as such. It’s a very strong trend in fashion and the bridal industry as well as housewares with personal-care appliances and its concept of hygiene and cleanliness. This is also reflected in the stage musical, ‘The Woman in White,’ and the films ‘The White Countess’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ with its White Witch. White is a total tranquillizer for a tumultuous world.”

• Mélange: “This is flavored by melon, apricot, strawberry and orange. The orange phenomenon is not going away for 2007, but there will be an infusion of blues, a toasty tan, a vibrant poppy red—all well grounded by a rustic khaki.”

• Aux Naturale: “These are basic neutral colors, beiges and taupes, denim-like blues and chocolate browns. The kids’ market reflect the natural look with browns in the movies, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ ‘Curious George’ (who is brown), ‘Wallace and Gromit’ and ‘Cars,’ in which a brown car is the star. There are also browns in children’s clothing and the toy market.”

• Grass Roots: “This starts with a variation on a green theme, moving on to mineral blue and various wood tones enhanced by unexpected mixes including grape, rose and terra cotta.”

• Fresh Air: “The dictionary defines something fresh as that which is ‘refreshingly different from what has been done previously.’ These colors are real eye-catchers—vibrant yellow and yellow-greens, purples and violets, sky blues and snowy whites.”

• Light Touch: “These are soft colors that many people want in their homes for a ‘quieter’ look in an increasingly noisy world. Modernizing a pastel palette can be easily done by re-inventing colors and combinations such as foamy aquas and greens, pinks and lavenders, powdery blues, and infusing them with a touch of champagne or a silvery gray.”