On My Mind: Powder Pink
Something's afoot with a very specific shade of pink...let's get into it!
Hello and Happy New Year to you all! I hope your 2025 is off to a stellar start, even as we’re all still slowly lingering in our post-holiday comas. Here’s to enjoying every last drop before the dreaded “circling back” begins in full force on Monday….gah!
Back in September I started this series called On My Mind, which is really less an official “series” and more just a forum for me to ramble and dissect something that’s been percolating in my brain for a decent while. It can be a fashion topic, trend, designer, or idea that I’ve been drawn to or noticed an uptick of interest and activity around. If you haven’t read my first installment, where I delved into vintage Ralph Lauren during the onset of the “Country Cousin” microtrend, please check it out here!
Today, I’m back with a topic that is both amorphous and specific at the same time, if that’s even possible: Powder Pink as an emerging “Fashion With A Capital F” color. Let’s dive in!
The Impetus
Who knows where trends, moments or movements come from; I’ve worked in fashion and beauty for over 21 years and it still baffles me! I am, however, a staunch believer in the frequency illusion, aka the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon—which I am sure you’ve all experienced. It’s that strange thing that happens after the moment you learn or clock something—be it a trend, a song, or a concept…and suddenly, it’s EVERYWHERE. You cannot take a beat without seeing it, hearing about it or experiencing it. And that’s what’s happened to me lately with powder pink!
My revelation started (like most things) through instinct. The impetus for my fascination with this color began with this pair of trousers from The Row, that I spotted on The Real Real about 3 months ago, which has since sold:
As I’m apt to do on TRR, I hearted them and kept eyes peeled, curious if the price would fall. In reality, the pants were already a bargain - I think around $150 when I first noticed them…obviously a very good price for The Row. But I didn’t snatch them up. I regret it deeply now, but at the time, I remember thinking to myself: “pink trousers? Sogole, really?” And so, I held off. I’m sure many of you have experienced this pull from time to time toward a piece that calls your name but you don’t understand why? While I do love colorful pants, I’m trying really hard this year to dress (and shop) for the real life I live, and so a pair of formal pink trousers didn’t feel super practical. The pause was necessary.
But now, with the passing of some time, I realize why I was drawn to this shade of pants: it was seemingly in the fashion ether, I just hadn’t come to terms with it yet. I thought back to the SS25 runways, and the puzzle pieces started to come together. This jaunty shade of pink was everywhere, but more poignantly, it appeared in unexpected ways at some of the most unexpected of brands: Khaite, Alaïa, Jil Sander, even Bottega. Designers I never considered “pink-friendly” were suddenly throwing powder pink on their runways with elegant ease and renewed creativity. At first I didn’t think much of it; it’s standard for certain colors to bubble up each season, as we’ve seen most recently with red, brat green, butter yellow and oxblood. But powder pink is particularly interesting to me given some recent cultural happenings, so I wanted to dive a bit deeper into how and why we got here.
The Backstory
You might be reading this right now rolling your eyes thinking, “Sogole, duh? Hello, the Barbie movie was not too long ago!” And you’re right—to an extent. The Barbie craze in 2023 certainly brought pink back to the forefront and made it a more popular color. But I’ll counteract this cliché by clarifying that the Barbie movie thrust into the spotlight the very specific shades of hot magenta pink and saccharine bubblegum pink—both of which quite frankly felt a little juvenile to me at the time.
As someone who loves color and embraces it where I can, I really do enjoy adopting seasonal shades into my wardrobe as a way to not only experiment with my personal style but also to stay relevant. But as I alluded to above, I refused to engage with ‘Barbie Pink’. Maybe it felt too ubiquitous or obvious, which turned me off and made me go the other direction, back into my neutral safe place. Or maybe as mentioned, it just felt too tween/teeny-boppy to me, and not sophisticated enough. (While I adore Anne Hathaway, I thought she looked a little absurd in that hot pink Valentino getup…borderline costume-y.) Trends be damned— the color just didn’t resonate with me, so I opted out.
With that said, you cannot deny the cultural shifts we saw in our collective acceptance of this ultra-feminine pink, and what it meant for women in general. If nothing else, 2023 proved how powerful women are for the economy, with the Barbie movie bringing in $1.4B worldwide, and our OTHER feminine icon—Taylor Swift—bringing in $2B. And even in 2024, pink in the zeitgeist continued…albeit in a softer form, as we saw with the onslaught of Wicked-related fashion that emerged in the final moments of the year. (I even heard Lauren Sherman mention on one of her recent Fashion People podcasts that she’s into pink RN!)
But I digress a smidge, bc I’m here to talk about a very specific shade of pink emerging in fashion next year, so let’s get into that.
The Evolution
Honing into the heart of the matter, let’s dissect what’s been happening in the world of color as it pertains to fashion and style.
As we all know, bold and bright red was THE fashion color of Fall 2023. We saw it everywhere: Valentino, Bottega, Prada, Bally—the list is endless. And what a fun color to embrace and add to our wardrobes! It was powerful, unabashed, and felt like an in-your-face evolution of the saccharine Barbie pink that pervaded earlier in the year.
Enter 2024 and red wasn’t going anywhere, but it did start to get moodier and more serious….probably to match the tone of the socio-political climate. With a pivotal election looming in the US and significant global events happening worldwide, the overall vibe turned somber, and fashion (ever the mirror) followed suit. Here we saw the proliferation of oxblood, burgundy, maroon and all the gorgeous deeper, wine-red shades take flight.
I’m obviously not a color theorist or expert (but Pantone if you like what you read, give me a call?), but it’s downright fascinating when you look at the evolution of this color family in its simplest form, and how ‘trendy colors’ not only shape our overall fashion environment but also shift with the cultural wave so readily.
And so we arrive to today, where we have Spring 2025 on the horizon and a new, very specific shade (range) of pink pervading so many designers’ collections. Perhaps this (possible) final iteration of our recent love affair with The Red-Pink Family speaks to the confused state we currently occupy: everything seems uncertain and in flux at the moment, and who knows what the future will bring. It’s almost like you gave a toddler the 2023/2024 trendy colors and they chaotically mixed them all up, landing on these new shade(s) of pink. I really don’t know what to call this shade or group of shades, to be honest. It’s not quite powder pink in fact, but it’s not dusty rose either. It’s not mauve, although it does seem to have hints of lilac baked in at times. It’s almost like 8 different shades of pink all at once, each of which carry a slight variation and seem to imbue an ever-so-subtle message of softness, bordering on subversiveness (in the best way). An expression of ironic femininity, perhaps?
The Application
As you can see, the 2025 brand of pink is variable. There are some shades that lean coral and others that dabble with purple. But on the whole, the essence skews toward a soft, sophisticated pink that whispers instead of screams; the kind of pink that even the most neutrally-inclined of us can appreciate. Some runway examples to illustrate:
And because I love to see the real-life application of a trend, here are some very early adopters of the shade (full disclosure, a few of these are slightly older snaps BUT as with all trends, what’s old is new again):
And now, I have to modify the famous monologue from the ever-wise Miranda Priestly to drive the application of this shade home…pls bear with me!
You… go to your closet, and you select… I don’t know, that lumpy pink sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just pink, it’s not bubblegum, it’s not magenta, it’s actually powder pink.
You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2025, Khaite did a collection of powder pink pieces, and then I think it was Alaïa, wasn’t it?… who showed powder pink puffer skirts. I think we need a skirt here.
And then powder pink quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin.
However, that pink represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of “stuff.”
That was a really over-the-top, unnecessary way for me to segue into how we can apply this color to our wardrobes (if we wish!) and connect to some of the trends we might be seeing as we head into a new season. (No Casual Corner here, please!)
The Interpretation
If you’re still with me during this insanely long, rambling diatribe, congrats! Your time is about to pay off bc we’ve arrived to the meat & potatoes, which is how you can apply this nebulous soft/powder/dusty/pinky/lilac trend to your own wardrobe.
As with any trend, first and foremost, decide if it’s for you. If you’re drawn to color like I am, any new iteration of an “in” shade is always an easy way to update your wardrobe without spending a fortune or overhauling your closet (none of which you should ever do with trends, anyways!) But pink—even in this most subdued iteration—can be a very polarizing color…so if it’s not for you, then skipping it altogether is the move.
If though, you’re feeling the powder pink vibes, then I’d say start with a quick closet inventory bc chances are, you may already own this color in some format. If you don’t and you’re into trying it out, then you should probably start with accessories, because it’s such a low-risk way to enter a trend and punctuate your personal style each season.
Finally, if you do decide to go full throttle, I suggest finding ways to add powder pink that are affordable, accessible and resonate with your personal style. For instance, as much as I adore Khaite and Alaïa, I’m not about to go spend thousands on a powder pink sheer dress or giant pouf skirt bc hi, reality. However, I could definitely scoop up a pinky-lilac cashmere sweater from J.Crew, pull out my old powder pink Roger Vivier pumps, or scour The Real Real for a pink top that will add some relevance without breaking the bank.
If you’re into this color, I’m also sharing some accessible finds available now so you don’t have to wait until Spring hits to begin incorporating into your closet.
What a crazy, winding, pink road it’s been today! I hope my somewhat stream-of-consciousness analysis of this seemingly random but haunting color trend that’s taken over my brain for the past few months was somewhat enlightening and helpful. From a random pair of secondhand pink The Row trousers to my unofficial Pantone job application, we’ve covered it all. My gut tells me that this Spring/Summer mayyyyyy be the final gasp of air from the red/pink color family. It seems the time has (almost) arrived to make way for a new color story in mid to late 2025, and I’m curious what that will be. (Please God, can we agree on something more exciting than Mocha Mousse.) But until then, I’ll happily don my dusty rose/powder pink/ballet lilac/insert amorphous pink shade here well into the spring & summer months as a breath of fresh and rosy air!
Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting and being here! I absolutely love hearing and engaging with you all and I’m so curious everyone’s thoughts on powder pink, so please, drop them in the comments! Until next week xx
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Sogole, this was SO good! I think it’s the Chloe/Boho impact, too! I think this dusty shade will stick around for awhile, I love it, and I love this deep dive series!
I love that THAT phenomenon has a name— I never knew!! I’m feeling the strong pull toward pink, too. I have a roll of pink/mauve velvet ribbon in a drawer and I kinda just want that vibe everywhere lately. This post will help me translate more practically. 🩷💗💞