Colour
2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the Pantone Color Institute decreeing a colour of the year. Image Credit: Pantone
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The world's colour authority has declared that we need to be comforted. And there's only one hue that'll provide a sufficient level of coziness and warmth.

Enter Peach Fuzz, Pantone's 2024 colour of the year.

Soothing our fractured world sure sounds like a tall order for a muted mix of pink and orange. But in a news release, Pantone's executive director, Leatrice Eiseman, asserted: "Peach Fuzz brings belonging, inspires recalibration, and an opportunity for nurturing. Drawing comfort from PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, we can find peace from within, impacting our wellbeing."

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the Pantone Color Institute decreeing a colour of the year. The special occasion might explain the company's relative return to basics with a hue as classic as peach. By comparison, it introduced last year's Viva Magenta alongside immersive AI-generated images, and for 2021, the company kind of cheated and selected two colors. Nonetheless, this year's rollout still comes with ample branded merchandise showcasing Peach Fuzz - including carpets, cellphones and makeup.

In recent years, Pantone has emphasiszed the ways in which its chosen colour inspires courage and vitality, but Peach Fuzz seems to bring a different energy to the table.

"The colour is one whose warm and welcoming embrace conveys a message of compassion and whose cozy sensibility brings people together and enriches the soul," Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Colour Institute, said in the same news release announcing the shade.

While Viva Magenta seemed an on-the-nose pick for 2023, the year of Barbiecore, there isn't as obvious of a cultural tie-in for Peach Fuzz in 2024 (though perhaps the earworm power ballad "Peaches" from "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" got people thinking). Trendiness, however, might be beneath good ol' peach. Something of a double threat, the warm neutral can both stand on its own or pair well with an array of bolder colors.

But can it mend our broken spirits? We'll report back in 2025.